I don't "Like" the word "Like" anymore.

Facebook and other sites on the internet that solicit public input have made me realize that I should strike the word "like' from my vocabulary.

No, not because it's a 1980's cliche used to describe the "valley girl" or because it's "like the word I tend to use like when I need to....... like.....tell somebody that someone like...said something. 

No, it's not that at all.

It's because it has taken on a use all its own that doesn't fit it's true meaning.

From the dictionary:
Like:  (verb) To take pleasure-in or regard with favor.

Now that everyone is on Facebook and other social media, the "like" button is overused and often wrong. For instance, as I  began to write this in April of 2013, my town was  in the midst of a flooding emergency. There was  a page posting images and information about the flood,  and I wish there was an alternative way to indicate (online) "I have read this information and agree with it!"  Why? because the pictures and postings were getting "likes."  NOBODY LIKES A FLOOD!

Last week, for the second time in as many weeks, there was an interruption in the power grid in Ionia. Since  I reluctantly operate a Facebook page for WION radio,  I thought I'd put it to good use, and ask, "did the power outage affect anyone downtown?" Of course, I expected answers in English. What did I get on the posting?  LIKES!  Again, I ask...how do you answer a question with a "like?"  It's impossible! NOBODY answered the question, but it got LIKES!

I've seen postings of family tragedies and serious things that nobody should "like"...but, of course, instead of typing a reply, people hit, "LIKE!"  

I don't like LIKE.  I used to like LIKE when it meant something!  Back when it meant appreciation, affection, and not "yep, I saw this." 

My Advanced English class in high school had a very particular teacher. She liked good verbs. Good Adverbs. Good sentences, none of which I've used in this rant; however I do know, she'd be appalled at the use of "like" today.  She loved creative sentences such as (like) "The house boasted big awnings over the windows which overlooked the lake." The word boasted impressed her. I remember it as if it was yesterday.  

If I had written my papers back then in the manner that our Facebook public has butchered the English language today, I'd have received an "F" immediately and never passed high school.  

I don't like LIKE anymore.  If it has not been thrown out of the English language by the Unicorn Hunters at Lake Superior State University, I hope it will, and I'm going to nominate it right after I finish this blog. 

I don't like.....LIKE.  It's like the worst thing to happen to like the English language since like...the early days of the internet.  And, it's...like  getting worse all the time.

Please don't "like' this blog post.

-Carlyle