Parenting Note #317: You Don’t Have To Like, Like It

“It’s not like, you know like, what like…”

Like is an example of filler words being used as props, to try to shore up a lame sentence.

People who can’t get along without um or er or basically (or, in England, actually) or et cetera et cetera are of two types: the chronically modest and inarticulate, such as Ms. Kennedy, and the mildly authoritarian who want to make themselves un-interruptible.

Saul Bellows character Ravelstein is a good example of the latter: in order to deny any opening to a rival, he says the-uh, the-uh while searching for the noun or concept that is eluding him. — Christopher Hitchens, Vanity Fair

I’m offering an alternative. It will eliminate the use of the word “like” and every other vocal filler.

Let’s just all stop talking.

Forever.

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