My mom has told me that vocal fry, overusing ālikeā in my speech, and using the word āliterallyā too much/incorrectly makes me sound unprofessional. Other people of her generation have said to young generations that these things make them sound stupid.
Hereās the thing. Why does this matter? No one owns language, words change meaning over time, and variances in speech donāt negate someoneās skills or intelligence.
Young people work hard, and Iād say a lot of us know how to be professional. Some things are just neither here nor there when it comes to someoneās abilities or professionalism.
Peopleās speech fillers are necessary. Our brains need time to process. Using āumā or ālikeā doesnāt always mean we donāt know (it certainly can mean that, but itās not always the case). Sometimes Iām trying to process the question and formulate my response while acknowledging that you spoke, or that I have more to say. Iāve been looked down on for not saying anything while Iām simply thinking.
Furthermore, as this article points out, the nitpicking of āmillennial speech habitsā such as these are another occurrence of how badly older generations want to control every aspect of millennial culture. It falls in the same vein of āmillennials are snowflakes because they find everything offensiveā and āmillennials canāt afford to buy a house because they eat too much avocado toast.ā Itās controlling, wildly hyperbolic, and misinformed stereotypes.
If youāre offended by a young personās speech habits, youāre not offended by the way they talk, youāre offended that a young person doesnāt always do things the way you do. Youāre simply afraid of change and losing power.
