I have now become hyper-aware of how often I use that phrase
Are there any phrases that people have told you you overuse or are characteristic of how you talk?
I use “like” and like a lot, almost like a California girl.
When I was a teenager our family moved from Northern to Southern California. My mom was a good mom and chill about most things but she really didn’t like the change in my speech. We lived in LA and like kids do - I started speaking like the locals. She particularly didn’t like my overuse of “like” and how my I turned statements into questions? It seemed I used question marks all time? And I didn’t even really realize I - like - used “like” all the time?
At that time she made me kind of mad. But in the end I appreciated it? Oops. Bad habits can come back so quickly.
i worked a summer gig at an outdoor camp as sort of a small unit supervisor. basically a department of 1 (me) that occasionally college interns would rotate through. to my credit, they told me by the midpoint that my setup was best because i was “chill”. anyway, at the end of the summer, a group of the stoner guys started doing impressions of me, to me, and universally they all included me becoming reservedly annoyed/exasperated at something (like a broken piece of equipment, or some high level boss barking pointless orders sharply before 7am) and muttering “blow me” quietly to myself. or when relating a story and characterizing my own lack of enthusiasm about whatever was happening.
“So then they said, ‘The job pays $8 an hour.’ and I was like, ‘Blow me.’”
they also all imitated my style of speech which involves really exaggerating, slowing the word “blow”.
that was over a decade ago so i am pretty sure i’ve shifted off that consciously, but for a while it was kinda wack how often i would say it. even to myself while reading something annoying. they all thought it was hysterical, but i definitely made some changes.
Say “slide note” instead and pull out a slide whistle and oooOOOOOP with it.
I say “I’ve probably mentioned this before” a lot because I am always forgetting if I have already told you something.
Unironically people should repeat their anecdotes often. The same story might grow stale for oneself after hearing it a few times, nevertheless repeating an anecdote builds memory of it and can serve as a bonding activity if done well. I wish more anecdotes from my grandparents were written down.
Parenti uses “and the like” a lot in his speech (and texts) and while this could be some kind of recency bias, I believe I see it more often in lemmygrad+hexbear than on the rest of the instances
