fad of the day

The English language is a flux. It flows from one place to another and back again, according to the fad of the day. This phenomenon is especially noticeable with those irritating linguistic devices which allow conversationalists to avoid the need for an extensive vocabulary.

For example, a popular phrase was until fairly recently: "you know." In fact, many people still use the term frequently because it's so useful for avoiding the bother of expressing themselves properly. Instead of reaching for the right word, they'll simply break off mid-sentence and say "you know" heedless of whether or not the listener does actually know.

Another example is current and ubiquitous - a pet hate of mine: "like." All manner of people use it and it's so popular the young seem to employ it several times in  one short sentence, such as "Like, I went to the pictures, like, and it was, like, awesome, like funny, like."

"Basically" was used for a long time (perhaps still is) by those called upon to explain the working of something. They can't get their brain in gear without first prefixing every sentence with the word "basically" as in the phrase "basically what we're doing is..."

The latest I've noticed is even more annoying - beginning every explanation with the word "so."
"How many cows do you graze on this farm?" asks the presenter on TV and almost invariably the farmer stops, thinks for a fraction of a second and then launches into the answer. "So - we keep 200 head of Holsteins..." What does "so" mean in this context? How has it become so endemic?

Finally, one of the most infuriating devices is perhaps the cliche of our time: "It's not rocket science." It applies to anything from writing blogs through resolving political issues to sending satellites into space, except the last one could be deemed rocket science.

Let's have a little more imagination please.