“What does the Like icon really communicate?”

As teenagers we spoke in likes. We would articulate our thoughts about a new interest, and we would fail. We used the word “like” to cover up our mistakes. This Radiohead album is like, like, um, kind of a—it’s like, you know, those electronic undercurrents that they’d like just begun to develop in their last album, we would stammer to a girl. And as college students we did the same. “I’m a Harvard professor,” wrote Lawrence Lessig in a review of The Social Network. “Trust me: The students don’t speak this language.” We were a far cry from Aaron Sorkin’s seamless script; we filled the gaps in our sentences with likes. Our thoughts and selves then appeared continuous.