Americans and "you know"

[quantiqus]

I am watching JRE MMA Show - Rose Namajunas and she is using you know every 20 seconds, in the middle of the sentence. I think I've heard it 100 times until now... seriously. And I am only at the beginning.
Also, most of the americans I've heard speaking, they use it. Some not that often, but some abuse of the "you know"

Why do you use it?
So you can organize your thoughts during this time?
Or Is it a habit thing?
The ones who use it with every breath they take don't they realize that they use it too much?

Another one is "you know what I'm saying"

 

[TheRuthlessOne]

Well it was urban black slang

But white people stole it and started saying it

You know what I'm saying?

 

[HARRISON_3]

Pretty much this

 

[mb23100]

It's not an American thing

 

[EJAXXX]

Forget about it

 

[Zanatos333]

I realized a few months ago I was saying it far too often. Its just a mannerism albeit an annoying one. I've made a conscious effort to stop doing it.

I still cannot figure out how to pronounce bag properly. Different kind of problem though.

 

[Midnighter]

It's not an American thing

Yes it is.

 

[TribalDrumz]

People say “ummm” a lot I noticed.

 

[LEGS MAHONEY]

Yes it is.

nah its a ghetto thing largely

chicanos abuse it the most

 

[Deleted member 220895]

I compare it to people saying "like" in every sentence.

It's lazy talk.

 

[CrimsonFan]

Nervous speaking habits. Everyone has them

 

[Twelve75]

you know, muricans lacing their speech with you know, doesn't you know, really bother me that much, you know, in comparison to you know, ''could care less'' & ''couldn't care less''

 

[Merlotte's]

That chick gets hit in the head for a living and POUNDED by HD Barry give it a rest.

 

[horc00]

It's like ummm probably like the same ummm reason people ummm talk like this like if you like know what I mean?

 

[Midnighter]

nah its a ghetto thing largely

chicanos abuse it the most

Nope, "you know" is a pretty common filler phrase.

 

[LEGS MAHONEY]

Nope, "you know" is a pretty common filler phrase.

I rarely ever heard it

 

[Blackjack]

Well it was urban black slang

But white people stole it and started saying it

You know what I'm saying?

Wow, talk about high aspirations! Somehow the younger generations seem to want to aspire to imitate the least successful social classes so they use black and Mexican ghetto slang. If you[re educated and someone's telling a story you haven't heard and they say 'You know" the correct response is "No, how would I know? It's your story." If they ask "You know what I'm saying" the correct reply is "Well, English is my native language."

 

[bandicoot]

You know, I don't know.

 

[Phlog]

It's a disfluency or a discourse marker.

Rather than pause and have the other person feel like they can interject, the speaker uses ums, ahs, you knows, etc to indicate they are still speaking but have to think about what they're going to say.

 

[squeezewax]

These people are a slave to saying it, they cannot stop. Drives me mental!