I recently came across a BBC News article which featured the Oscar-winning actress, Emma Thompson, and how she felt about teen slang being used outside of school. The use of the word “like” being applied to, literally every sentence, has caused commotion for her. Thompson believes that the word “like” should not be used as a filler word, i.e “um” or “er”, as it’s an actual word itself.
John Ayto who is the editor of the Oxford Dictionary of Modern Slang, states that “it is not lazy use of language…” AMEN to that! To each their own, I guess.
utopianexistence 
I never thought of the word ‘like’ being used as a filler before , but now coming to think of it , may people actually do this without even realizing their doing it. I wish people would just calm down and take a breathe instead of sounding like an idiot ‘ermming’ and ‘arrhing’ in-between their un thought of speeches. I personally use the work like within a comparison.
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Where I’m from, like is used in every single sentence. My friend actually does it all the time without thinking. I don’t think it’s a hinderance in our speech but used instead of fillers. I’d rather use ‘like’ then ‘erm’ when talking to people anyway!
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The word ‘like’ being used as a filler really irks me and I honestly prefer it when people ‘uhm and ahh’ when deciding what to say. ‘Like’ isn’t the only word to fall victim to being used as a filler though. Through primary school to my first year in secondary school, people were using ‘yeah’ as some sort of affirmation-seeking filler and it annoyed me as much then as it does now.
I personally think people who use fillers such as ‘like’ and ‘yeah’ are looking for a vocal way to think about what they’re going to say without hindering their impression of mindfulness.
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I understand why people use the word “like” as a filler. It’s synonymous to the phrase “for example” so it’s indicating that they are thinking of an example. If someone is using “um” or “er” it may be difficult to know whether they are thinking or actually don’t know what to say. I only find using the word “like” a plausible filler to a certain extent. What I don’t understand is when people use it excessively, such as in between every word in their speech – because that’s just annoying!
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I think ‘like’ should now be accepted as a filler word simply because it is used by so many. Having said this, I do wonder why the word began to replace fillers like ‘erm’ but I think nowadays it’s just a word everyone knows to be a filler word and therefore follows society and takes it on themselves… I know I have!
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‘Like’ should definitely be accepted as a filler word. It’s everywhere, I couldn’t count the amount of times a day I hear it used when someone wants to pause for a moment of thought, and in my opinion it sounds much nicer than ‘um’ or ‘er’.
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I really don’t think er and um should ever be classed as words because on their own they make no grammatical sense at all.
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