Have you noticed how the word ‘like’ is now used in significantly different ways than a generation ago? I started to read up about ‘like’ and almost wished I hadn’t! There is so much going on with this word. I am quite aware that language ebbs and flows, changes, grows etc etc but this particular word has a long and interesting history.
I would have been introduced to it as a description of something of which you are fond, maybe a food, colour, game etc. ‘I really like baked beans.’ Also it would be involved in similes: ‘To run like a cheetah.’ I had forgotten that as long ago as the 1950s, those who might have termed themselves ‘Beatniks’ might have used phrases such as : ‘Like wow, cool man.’ Now though the word has transformed into something regular rather than occasional. For example: ‘ we thought we would like have the room to ourselves but it turned out that like a family had booked it already.’
The usage that is really noticeable now is as a filler, a hesitancy in speech, thinking time maybe.
I wonder what the demographic is around this subject. I wonder if you use the word ‘like’ in this way when young, are you going to continue to do so into middle age and beyond.
There is much to read about this subject should you choose to look further.