Have you noticed how many people under 30 today are unable to speak without saying the word “like” in every sentence, often several times in one sentence?
Typical conversation:
So we’re, like, ready to go, and he’s, like, “Who’s driving,” and I’m, like, “I thought you were,” and we’re, like, not even sure where we’re going.
We used to laugh at this in the '80s as Valley Girl talk. Now almost everybody under 30 talks like a Valley Girl.
(No no no, not you SDopers under 30.)
[muppet]
Like, I’m Janice, on lead guitar, fur shure, really.
Like, can you get behind it!
[/muppet]
So like, what’s your point? 
Oh no, of course not…well, maybe. I use ‘like’ like all the time, often without noticing it. I’m sure some future study will reveal a genetic divergence among Americans is responsible for this. Like, it’s the ‘like’ gene. And I’ll be like, ‘Yeah, see? I told you!’
Actually I’m under 30 and I agree with you. I discovered this about myself a couple of years ago and forced myself to stop saying “like” in every sentence. I don’t know how I started saying “like” all the time, all I know is that it was actually pretty hard to stop.
I’m currently trying to break my 7-year-old daughter of the habit. My 21-year-old sister says ‘like’ so much I feel I’m sifting her words to extract meaning every time I talk to her.
But I vividly remember being broken of the “ya know” habit when I was my daughter’s age, in the early 1970s. It was the cursephrase of that earlier era and I’m like, ya know, no worse for the wear. 
Like is sooooo much better than my aunt, whose “errr” phrase is “'n shit”.
“So we was walkin’, 'n shit, and there was a quater on the floor 'n shit and I picked it up 'n shit.”
Hope you washed your hands.
One of my friends talks like that all the time, and begged my brother not to make fun of her because she can’t help it.
“So, what’s new?”
“I, like, went to the mall, and, like, I got a leather jacket. It was, like, on sale. Then I, like, went to the ice cream place, and got a double, like, chocolate cone…”
For what it’s worth, she’s 24.
F_X
I once read that inexperienced writers try too hard to use words such as “exclaimed,” “bellowed,” “whispered,” “intoned,” “muttered,” and so forth instead of the old reliable “said,” which will do for most situations.
Well, meet “like,” said’s pouty adolescent companion. Like is the Skipper to said’s Barbie, the Dawn to said’s Buffy, the Robin to said’s Batman . . .
And then Mr. Peterson was like, “Madge, you know I can’t allow you to make such a sacrifice for me.”
And then Miss Willoughby was like, “Tut-tut, Alvin, you know that you mean the world to me.”
And then Mr. Peterson was like, “All the same, dearest, you must live your own life!”
And then Miss Willoughby was like, “My darling Alvin, without the light of your love, I have no life.”
Swell of violins . . . passionate embrace . . .
<Like, in a mall nearby…>
Like, what’s the deal with those like, old people who, like, constantly complain about the like, way I talk and stuff. Well, I guess they can like, just get used to it. Like, whatever!
I’m like over 30 and I say it like, all the time. I guess that’s 'cuz I like, work with kids and stuff. 
So Walloon goes, “like stop it.”
So I go like, “no way.”
Then Walloon gets like really mad like. And like yells really like loud. And goes, “like stop it.”
So I go, “okay.”
And that was like how it like happened.
And I like, like to say go instead of like said.
And I’m like, an idiot!
I do that. I think it’s because I tend to talk very fast, and I get nervous, and stutter, stammer, etc. I don’t talk very fluidly.
The crutch that drives me crazy is “I mean” - when used to start a sentence, not when trying to clarify a statement. One of my sisters does this all the time, and I’ve heard people on the radio do it, too.
“Hi, how are you doing?”
“I mean, I’m having a rough day.”
“What’s wrong?”
“I mean, my boss is a jerk.”
GAH! Stop it!
The absolute worst is knowwhatI’m sayin?
No, I have no fucking clue what you’re saying, 'cause you’re not saying ANYTHING!!!
Christ, just go away.
Please.
Believe it or not, I started saying “like” because of the making-fun-of-Valley-girls thing. I didn’t even know what a “Valley Girl” was, but I, like, saw it on SNL. My friends and I, like, started doing our impressions, like, all the time, and soon we, like, couldn’t stop it. Like, for real.
I have several phrases that I probably use way too often: like, for real, totally, and apparently. But when I was an early teenager (as in 14, 15) my grandmother used to get really annoyed by my constant use of the word “cool.” I was trying to be agreeable by answering “cool” to pretty much any suggestion she made. But apparently I drove her up a frickin’ wall. I mean, to the point of having to give her money and think up three other adjectives anytime I said the word.
Does anyone ever wonder what sort of response one would get if such a person was asked, “Who was the first president of the United States?”
I do.
I am scared to find out.
Truly I am.
Like, you think kids are idiots? I mean, it was Gorgeous George Washington, like the father of our country 'n shit. I mean, he was totally cool when the British got all postal. For real!
I blame the Smurfs.
I’m like yea, but she’s all no, and I’m all come on baby let’s go, but she’s like - I don’t think so.
I started saying “like” for “said” when I picked it up from a more cosmopolitan friend of mine who I thought was cool and stuff back when I was 14 or so. Now I say it too much, but probably not to the point of driving anyone insane. (Nahh–there’re OTHER things I do that have made them all nuts…)
Partial list of similar phrases that I overuse: like, go (as in "so he went, “So what?”), cool, ‘and stuff,’ elipses at the end of a thought, other forms of trailing off at the end of a sentence instead of providing a full stop. Also, ‘you know’, ‘I know’, and ‘exactly!’
My brother (20) says “like” a lot, much more than I do, now that I come to think of it. But then again, he hangs out with more kids his age and younger than I do. I’m not sure if the fact that many of them are neo-hippies and music addicts makes any difference.