The English language

The English language has taken an incredible beating the last few years with the advent of "liketalk"... I don't know what else to call it. What I thought was a passing fad - the typical American teenager's faddish interjection of the word "like" into every single sentence -- has become so rampant it is a disease. Even thirty year olds and business executives talk this way!
"Like" is used not only as "um" is used, a chronic and useless interrupter - it actually takes the place of adjectives, nouns, imagination, intelligence, etc. etc. etc.
For instance, you no longer have to say,
"She was furious at me.."
You just say,
"She was LIKE "aaaaaghh!"
No need for such tedious sentences as "He said, I'll take care of it." Now it's "He was LIKE I'll take care of it"
So you see there's no past tense any more, there's just the pea-brained characterization of any event, any shade of meaning, past, present or future, relevant or irrelevant, as "LIKE"
WHAT HAS HAPPENED?????

P.S. Yes I have been watching Big Brother.