Gen Z Woman Compares How She Talks to Boomers, Asks 'What Happened to Us'

A woman has, like, gone viral on TikTok after revealing, like, one of the starkest contrasts between, like, Generation Z and boomers, and you guessed it— it involves a whole lot of likes.

In a video posted on her TikTok account (@ashlynnrudzinski), Ashlynn Rudzinski said that she has "never met anyone over the age of 50 that uses filler words." Compare that to most younger people, especially Generation Z (born in 2000 and after), who can hardly string a few words together without saying "like" or "um."

While expressing her thoughts in the clip, the Gen Zer asks "What happened to us?" However, even Rudzinski can't help but use the filler words without intending to, showing how ingrained they have become. She even jokes that she "can't survive without the word 'like,'" as she uses it so often. Rudzinski, from Nashville, Tennessee, has certainly intrigued many people with her musings. Since the video was posted on social media, it has been viewed more than 5 million times and gained over 491,600 likes on TikTok.

Incessantly using filler words is a linguistic crime that many of us are guilty of doing on a daily basis. A journal published by the American Physiological Society said that the most-common reasons for using them include nervousness, speaking too fast, inadequate preparation time, and wanting to avoid a silence by filling the gap with fillers.

Their usage does certainly appear to be more prevalent in younger people, as a YouGov poll of 6,972 U.S. adults reported that 23 percent of 18- to 24-year-olds believe they use filler words more often than the average person. Meanwhile, 58 percent of those aged 55 and over believe they use them less than average.

This interesting generational divide also sheds light on how filler words are viewed, as 37 percent of Americans think it is unprofessional when a person constantly them in a work setting. This was a more-prominent view among older respondents, with 44 percent of those aged 55 and over, compared to 29 percent of 18- to 24-year-olds.

The amusing video posted by Rudzinski highlighted just how easy it is for fillers to slip into everyday lexicon, leaving her dramatically covering her mouth on the multiple occasions she said "like" while recording.

Alongside the clip, Rudzinski wrote: "What did our parents feed us? I cannot speak without depending on the word like."

The post has certainly captured plenty of attention, and with more than 8,180 comments on TikTok so far, many people shared their own thoughts on the debate.

One comment reads: "Filler words are not a marker of unintelligence, they're placeholder words to indicate you're still thinking/speaking so someone doesn't interrupt you."

Another person responded: "As you mature and want to be taken seriously, you will change the way you speak."

A third TikTok user wrote: "It's generational. Older gens have filler words to, it's you don't recognize them, because it's not what your accustomed to hearing and speaking."

Newsweek reached out to @ashlynnrudzinski via Instagram for comment. We could not verify the details of the case.

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