Discourse Markers, uh, you know, like, I mean..............

This link Here's Why Using 'Like' In Conversations Could, You Know, Be A Good Thing
presents "discourse markers" as a trait of conscientious people displaying thoughtfulness of the listener.

A significant study and conclusion?  Baloney!

I am more inclined to believe that it is "mind chunking"  my own term.  Chunks of incomplete thought expression connected by a verbal filler pause while the next thought chuck is formulated.  The antithesis of lucid thought.  Perhaps associated with short attention span.  Perhaps a learned mannerism through exposure to media?

How far ahead does a mind formulate what the words express?  To the extent that a standard sentence or paragraph is fully formed in the mind prior to expression.  Kind of like a peripheral vision for speech, you know?

Like Airhead talk.

I am hearing this speech pattern more often in verbal media.  Today I listened to a corporate spoke person pepper her comments with these "Discourse Markers".  Maybe she was hired to speak to speak to the target audience.

Unfortunate deterioration of the quality of communication but even sadder a dumbing down of the power of lucid thought process.

An app for that?  Like a spell checker.  A speech checker applied to prerecorded media conversation to eliminate the "discourse markers".  Hey, that sounds like a translator!