The vast majority of the American youth, say the word "like" much too much. But how much too much? I've always enjoyed counting how many times an individual or a group of individuals would say "like" in casual conversation. Often times, I have heard the word said at least 30 times within a matter of minutes. (With enough 14 year old girls in one room, I'm sure some kind of record could be broken.)

So when I saw this task, I felt that I had some kind of duty to document my love for this habit of mine. So I took a pad and paper to school, and started tallying...

First of all, I broke the system down into four sections.
-Men
-Women
-Unknown (If I was to overhear someone without knowing gender, or if a dog bark sounded suspiciously like it.)
-Askers (People who asked me what I was doing; I made this column just out of curiosity)


When the tallying began, it was fairly balanced between the men and women. When I overheard the word said in a conversation, I put a tally. As I went about my first class that day, the booming voices of many manly men could be heard from a mile away, and they said "like" quite often. They swept the board at first, and I started to think maybe boys are worse than girls when it comes to this matter.

But, oh, how wrong I was...

In my next class, about as much talking took place as the first class, but it was the girls time to shine. My hand barely left the pad. There were very few times a sentence said by a girl would be said without the word "like."

After that class ended, I decided to add the askers column just for my own personal interest.

People started to figure out what the study was at this time, but I wasn't really trying to keep it a secret. I only intended for it to be through the natural saying of the word. And for most part, that is exactly how it worked out.

At the end of the day these were my results:

Men: 109
Women: 273

Unknown: 1 (Occurred during passing period, when a large amount of people were present)

Askers: 34


I also made a few conclusions as I observed the people who were talking:

- People tend to say it a lot more when they are describing their though or feelings on a subject.
- When they feel they are being too vague to the listener
- When telling stories (Unless it is a story that they have told many times)

This task was very interesting and even draining at times. It was quite a challenge to listen so intently to everything that is being said around you, yet at the same time I felt disconnected from the natural world. The experience was intriguing and tiring, but at least I have something to show for all that work.