Have you ever counted the number of filler words you use? It can be scary. My Finance professor counted our filler words during a presentation. We knew ahead of time he intended to do it. He counted any "umm," "okay," or any other filler word and then let you know. When discussing this with him before my presentation, he let me know my problem is not "umm," but "like." Anyone who has ever had a casual conversation with me knows my preference for this word. Actually, I don't think it is a preference as much as an uncontrollable urge. My mother would be proud to know that during my presentation I did not use one "like" though.
This led to a discussion about our generations affinity for the words "like" and "dude." Have you noticed children these days don't have a problem with those two words? I blame our love of 80s movies like "Valley Girls," "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun," and the Bill and Ted movies. They created a generation, of mostly girls, incapable of talking without using extraneous words. I am an educated professional who in comfortable casual speak still sounds like a Valley Girl.
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