Speech disfluencies and discourse particles.

So, one of my most heartfelt pet peeves is the use of the word “like” as a filler. As a graduate student who’s often around a lot of people in their early twenties, I can’t tell you how much this bugs me and how inarticulate and unintellectual the overuse of this filler makes users of it sound. But what’s really bad is when you meet someone highly educated and in their mid-thirties who uses the word “like”, on average, about three times per sentence. I know someone like this. Listening to said person talk drives me INSANE!!! No matter how interesting the topic we’re on, or what bright things she may have to say between “likes”, I’m so focused on when she’s going to say it again and wondering whether or not I should do her a favor and point out how distracting it is that she says it so much, that what she says in between is totally irrelevant, no matter how potentially thought-provoking.

It’s one thing when you’re in your teens and early twenties, but for people in their thirties who possess a graduate education??? No way. It’s inexcusable.