A certain postmodern fondness for not knowing what you think is perhaps reflected in the North American speech habit of inserting the word ‘like’ after every three or four words. It would be dogmatic to suggest that something actually is what it is. Instead, you must introduce a ritual tentativeness into your speech, in a kind of perpetual semantic slurring. Eagleton, After Theory (104)
I think this habit may also have to do with avoiding responsibility for what you think. If you, like, support the war, you can easily disavow that support later when, like, it’s no longer cool. My favorite version of this is the phrase “like, I don’t know,” meaning both “I don’t know” and “it’s like I don’t know.” The latter suggests that the speaker can’t distinguish between knowing and not knowing, something I imagine could be difficult when you know very little.
