Are certain words like fingernails down the blackboard for you?

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Like, I don’t know.  Does it, like, bother you when you hear someone saying “like” all the time??

Supposedly, according to a recent poll, reported on ABC news last week…the word…”Whatever” was found to be the most annoying word to the majority of  people in our culture.

Like, who knew?  As you can, like, see, this may not be, like, the most annoying word, like, to me.  The word “like” is like,  fingernails down the, like, blackboard.  I, like, hear it all the time. Out of the mouths of some of our most, like, well-educated, up and coming, young professionals.  Injected, like, in the simplest of,  like, sentences.  Like, whatever.

Maybe, just because it is so annoying to me, it seems to land on my ears like some kind of perverse velcro. I seem to, like, have radar for it.

Don’t get me wrong, I am all for liking as much as possible in this life.  With so much to potentially dis-like, it could make one quite the grump.  So, focusing on “liking,” in general,  is a good thing… Until it becomes inserted every third word in every, like,  sentence. 

Like, let’s sail down memory lane for just a second and look at where this use of  “like” came from.  Correct me if I am wrong, but I think it was originally used to make fun of the gum-snapping, wack-a-doodle Valley Girl friends of  Beavis and, like, Butthead–as a prelude to DUMB and DUMBER.  It was meant to make fun of these goofy, overly made up, spiky haired,  girls who were considered a total joke.  They were spoofed, right along with those “wild and crazy” guys on Saturday Night Live, back in it’s hey day.  Let’s just, like, tell the truth—like, it has never made  anyone sound smarter……like, does it?  

It reminds me of an interview done with Will Smith on The Actor’s Studio. His amazingly successful career has spanned being a super-selling rap artist, then sit-com television star… And on to the top box office draw, he remains today. When asked the secret of his success, he revealed a decision he made early on.  He said, “I decided to stop sounding like an idiot.”  His words, not mine.  As a matter of  fact, he went on to talk about the workshops he created to convince kids to “talk smart, if you are.”   “Drop the rap.  Develop the quality of both, your voice and your words,  if you want to be noticed in a positive way.”  Like, what a good idea.

So, if, like you are a “liker” or if, like, you know someone who is–ask them to replace “like” with the other word, which seems to fit in it’s place–”UM”.   Would it, um, allow you to see how, um, distracting it is?  Could you, um, maybe see how it would give, um, the impression that you are,um, one of the more, um, slow thinking  people on the, um, planet?

‘Nuff Said.

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