I have a habit of watching CBS Sunday Morning on, (m-hm) Sunday mornings. This weekend one of the segments featured music superstar and fashion icon (their words, not mine) Gwen Stefani. It was an interesting interview, as interviews go, (hitting heavily on her romance travails) but at one point I zoned out of the information being relayed because all that was reaching my ears were the "likes" that peppered her conversation.

I don't know (like) when these catchphrases became (like) the language crutches they are. The weird thing is, I have come to (like) expect it in the lexicon of the (like) middle-school thru college age group. But these (like) insidious shibboleths (like) fill the conversations of people (like) far outside what could be considered (like) a young person's age group.  For instance, Ms. Stefani,  is (like) 46! (Geez it is even more annoying in print!).

There are numerous people in this building where we work, who's every other word is "like" or "you know", separated by the ubiquitous "um" and they are well into their 30's, 40's and beyond. Why has this happened? It is baffling to me on an epic scale!

Conceivably people don't even notice that they do it. They certainly must not hear themselves while they are conversing or they assuredly would stop, knowing that this proclivity makes them appear less intelligent than they may be. Perhaps I'm simply overanalyzing what amounts to a glorified verbal tick. But it drives me insane, so overanalyze I will.

John McWhorter, an associate professor of English at Columbia university and a New York Times writer opines that what most people perceive as grammatical sloth, (including me) may actually be evidence of "growing sophistication". An awareness, a consideration, a politeness if you will, toward "the states of mind of others".

Another article from The Journal of Language & Social Psychology theorizes that people who constantly use "filler language" could possibly be conscientious, deep-thinkers. (I wonder what sort of pharmaceutical products they were sampling when they came up with that rationale!).

I can't help but wonder and worry about what future civilizations happening upon audio and video evidence from this period of time in our existence might surmise about our language skills. Feasibly, that many of us were verbal nincompoops, nitwits and lummoxes? I'd surmise that that would be within the realm of possibility.

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