Friday Flashback: Verbal Tics

So I was, like, thinking about how I, like, talked back in the day.  (OK, I'll stop that now.)  But seriously?  How many of you have said: "Like, oh my god!" followed promptly by a hair flip or the blowing of a big pick Bubblicious bubble.  I remember being in my mom's bedroom and not being able to get through a sentence because she stopped me every time I said "like."  It was almost impossible to, like, finish. *damn it, I did it again*

Here's what I want to know though.  How did Valspeak become an acceptable part of the English language?  Don't believe me?

OMG!

Just find me a teen who hadn't texted this three-letter acronym yet.
Or even better: LIKE
I hear my baby sitter say it, and I'm still guilty of using the word as a verbal tic.  Like those times when I'm driving and my brain's only half into the conversation and I'm trying to remember what I was going to say next.  Do you still catch yourself doing this?
And don't even get me started on my college prof Beta reader.  She went nuts when she thought I had my MC using a "like" phrase because she hears so many kids talking like this and didn't want me perpetuating the bad grammar.  (In my defense, I had forgotten a word, so it was a typo, not a grammo.)

In a twisted, not-so-good way, it's kind of funny that kids are still using the bad slang we used in high school yet think they have nothing in common with us.  Whatever.  We are, like, so totally cooler than they give us credit for. *insert major eye roll*  As if!

What verbal tics do you hear being passed around the teen crowds these days?


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