Nathan H. Ware

News Editor

As a global nomad, I have lived outside the United States. When exposed to American culture before coming to the U.S., I noticed something my foreign friends and I still laugh about: how often Americans our age say “like”. My friends and I have even jokingly mimicked how they speak. But the longer I’ve been here, and the more Gen Z social media posts I’ve seen, the weirder and more annoying I find the frequent use of “like”. The other day, I counted 20 “likes” said in a 15-second interjection. (Yes, I counted. And I counted several more times.) That’s almost one “like” per second! 

I know that all cultures have a filler word or sound. I lived in Latin America, where “ehh” is the filler sound and studied in the French system, where the “euh” sound was common. But using a word that accounts for half the words you speak is weird to me. 

I was told at home that you should choose your words wisely before speaking. In class, I was taught that no one enjoys listening to you think while giving a presentation or speaking. You might think these are harsh things to say, but that’s how I was brought up, and it is true. No matter where you go, you don’t hear a country’s leader or a politician (with many exceptions nowadays) make a speech that is just air or brimming with filler words or sounds.

However, what’s weirder is that in the U.S., people use “like” as a filler word! Why? Since coming to the College last August, I couldn’t figure out why people used “like” when it didn’t make sense in their sentences. “Like” is used when comparing something, expressing enjoyment, offering or making a request, not every few words in situations where it’s unnecessary! It becomes repetitive and shows an inability to speak long, eloquent sentences that are thought out beforehand. It shows that people are uncomfortable with silence when speaking, so they must fill that “void” with a word. Believe me, foreigners our age make fun of Americans for that “habit.”

Speaking is an important skill, especially for college students who will be introduced to the real world. If we have something to say, we have to focus on what we will say and not speak without having our ideas formed. Otherwise, no one will take us seriously or care to remember what we say.