Situational rather than Abstract

When we concluded the class today talking about the last item of Ong's list, I felt right at home. It does not occur to me how many "place-fillers" are used in language. The people who are around me often, enjoy reminding me that "like" is not a good thing to put in one's sentences. 

The girl was NOT like, the girl said. This is the phrase I hear weekly. Much less often now because I am being conditioned into a different habit. 

Another filler I have noticed recently is when people are listing something off they something conclude with, "blah, blah, blah." This is one that always caught my interest. I never knew why one would say that. But I suppose that people are more focused on the abstract, instead of the situation. We often forget to provide specifics when telling a story. Because we are in a written culture I believe that we, as Dr. Sexson mentioned today, want to get straight to the point. We omit the details in order to get the story over with, so we can save more time. There is no longer a need for just siting around and listening to a good story.