I know I’m guilty of it. I blame it on being from the West Coast. Every “like” that slips out of my mouth feels like a dead giveaway of growing up near the Pacific. But apparently, it’s an American thing. According to a new study from Preply, Americans are becoming hyper-aware of their filler words, and Google searches for “filler words” have jumped 144% in the past month. A viral “no filler words” trend is pushing people to record themselves speaking for a minute without saying “um,” “like,” or “so.” Most fail within seconds.

Filler words started generations ago, but their cultural staying power says a lot about us. Linguists trace them back to mid-century radio, when natural conversation began to replace polished speech. Then came the 1980s, when the “Valley Girl” voice turned “like” in

See Full Page