I have written several articles about the abuse of the word like. I covered like and basically like, like… and like… yeah, and like as a general verbal tic. I could dedicate an entire website to the abuse of like. However, were I to do so, I would have to change the selling-point of The New Leaf Journal (which is free). Thus, I try to publish like content in moderation (unlike how the like abusers beat the like dead horse). I only share the worst “like” stories with readers. I overheard a woman say the following on the phone on August 4, 2023:
I could get like the keys and come back.
Woman on the street
She said something about a wedding immediately before this horrific like the keys line. I think she was involved in the execution of the wedding and was suggesting that she would leave the upcoming wedding to pick up keys and then return. But why did she say I could get like the keys? This does not make sense. She could get the keys. She could pick up the keys. What are like the keys? Whatever happened to there just being keys? If she said that she could not get the non-like keys, I would ask whyever not?
When your addiction to the word like becomes so severe that you insert it before physical keys, you have a problem. You need to take a step back before you talk and think of a way to express your thoughts clearly without resorting to gratuitous likes to buy time. No one will be harmed by a brief silence. People will be harmed by like as a verbal tic. These adults like have to have like picked it up from somewhere, like you know?
