“So, like, you wanna hear something crazy? I was like texting and walking to class, and I like bumped into this huge tree, like head first.”

Clearly, “like” has become one of the most, if not the most, frequently used words in the youth’s vocabulary, and it has been for a while. Its pervasiveness is evident in the conversations of teenagers, college students and even adults into their 30s.

So why the word “like” and not any other word like – wait, I guess that’s why: because of its versatility. The word “like” is usually used as a verb or to denote similarities between things. According to Jessica Love, a cognitive psychologist from Northwestern University, the uses of “like” have increased to include function as a hedge (“He was like, ten feet tall”), as a filler word (“He ate like, five cheeseburgers today”) and as a way of introducing speech (“My friend was like, ‘Did you just eat five cheeseburgers?’”).

Now is this good or bad? It’s certainly not bad if linguists argue that it does not violate any grammatical rules. Many say that language is constantly changing, and one word can assume multiple roles. Whether it is being used as a verb or simile, “like” has become a vital “function word,” one that is “gramaticalizing” language. The grammaticalized version of the sentence “I am going to buy a book,” for instance, would be, “I’m gonna buy a book.”

If nothing else, “like” has added an element of drama and expression to our conversations, for instance, when the speaker uses it to stress on something important that she wants to convey. “He was like, 10 feet tall” emphasizes that the speaker probably saw Bigfoot. The use also recreates the feelings of a moment: “My roommate was like, ‘Keep your smelly shoes outside the room!’ and I’m like, ‘Yeah right! Look who’s talking.’”

However, excessive use can create unnecessary problems. What if you cannot stop using it and it slips out during a presentation or a formal interview with a prospective employer? You probably didn’t blow your chance to get the job if you otherwise impressed the interviewer, but you’re still expected to use professional language while you talk to this person. Your professionalism and proficient command over language could be the factors that distinguish you from the other candidates.

Some dissidents feel that kids should converse in technically correct and well-polished language all the time, but that is humanly impossible to achieve unless everyone could stop and think before speaking, which would defeat the point of informal exchanges. Informal conversations are informal and not like essays or speeches because people do not tend to stop to clearly organize their thoughts before expressing them. It would be strange to speak to someone who stopped and technically assessed their language every time before they spoke. Such conversations could go on indefinitely.

The trick to prevent “like” from becoming a disadvantage in formal situations is to abstain from its atypical uses for as long as possible. To do this considerably improves a speaker’s control over the word’s use and helps them develop a more flexible vocabulary. The goal is to be able to omit “like” from any kind of formal conversation while not completely dismissing it. All that the speaker needs is a bit of conscientiousness because using the word informally is a given.

That being said I still do not discourage its use. The use of “like” is so deeply embedded in our informal vocabularies that, regardless of attacks by dissidents, the word is impossible to eradicate. Moreover, if Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary and The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language advocate for the non-typical uses of “like,” then I would just close the debate there.

Suyash Tibrawalla is a Collegian contributor and can be reached at [email protected].