The word “like” is very often mis- and overused, and, sadly, well outside the speech of valley girls.
There are at least two main categories:
Firstly, and more obviously, the valley-girl version of using “like” as a filler, qualifier, or similar: Like, I feel that this misuse of “like” is like weird, right?
This example also points to an overlapping problem of an unwillingness to make statements of opinion, to take a stand on an issue, to proceed without peer approval, and similar. This might be a topic for a later text in its own right. Alternatively, the sub-issue of using “feel” instead of “think”, “believe”, or another superior alternative might receive a separate treatment.
Secondly, less obviously and more interestingly, uses of “like” (especially, in combination with “looks” or “sounds”) instead of formulations with “that”, “as if”, and similar.
For instance, it is correct to say that “the one twin looks like the other”, because there is a direct comparison involved and it is a given that the two twins are separate entities. However, beyond such cases things get iffy. Consider “it looks like John won”: Here, the intention is likely “there are indications that John won—so he probably did” or, even, simply “John won”; however, the more natural interpretation is “[...]—but there is uncertainty” or, even, “[...]—but he did not”. For the presumed actual intent, it might be best to speak outright of “John won” or, with a qualification, “I believe that John won”. Barring that, “it seems that John won” would be better (but see side-note). Likewise, if an alternate meaning is intended, it would be better to be more explicit about that.
A problem with implications in this family is that many relevant words (not just “like”) have drifted in use/meaning/understanding/whatnot. For instance, “it seems that”/“it appears that” also has a focus on appearances and are often used to indicate the appearances. However, they are also very often used to imply some degree of certainty or as somewhat fix phrases, with the “appearance” aspect neither intended by the speaker nor understood by the hearer. At an extreme, we might have someone standing in the rain and commenting that “it appears to be raining”.
Neither do I claim to avoid such formulations myself, nor would I necessarily recommend it, at this stage of language development. However, I do not deny some sympathy for a purist who tries to do it better, and my use of some unusual formulations above was to avoid using explanations that could partially, themselves, be attacked by a purist. (Replace “there are indications” above with e.g. “it appears”.)
The uses of “looks like”, however, are worse. This, in part, because “like” might still be salvageable, but more importantly because such formulations have two elements that introduce uncertainty: First, the “looks” has a similar effect to “seems” and “appears”. Second, the “like” introduces an aspect of contrafactuality, in that e.g. the one twin looks like the other, but, critically is not the same person. Ditto, “it looks like it is raining” would more strongly imply that (a) there are appearances of rain, but (b) these appearances are misleading—we have the semblance of rain, not actual rain.
For instance, “it looks like it will rain” is unnecessarily ugly, if not necessarily incorrect. (Here, most speakers likely do intend some doubt, because weather can be fickle and predicting it is hard. The full implication of “but it will not” is unlikely, however.) This the more so when the author of a work of fiction has a too limited set of phrasings in his arsenal, and subjects the reader to an endless stream of “looks like”. Here, a better option is “it looks as if it will rain” (be it outright or to create variation in phrasing). Ditto, forgoing “looks”, e.g. “it seems that it will rain”. There are even cases of e-books that leave me tempted to just run a query–replace on the text to change all occurrences of “looks like” into “seems that”. (The text would likely be better in the net, but problems could arise with sentences that involve a correct use. Consider a change from “the one twin looks like the other” to “the one twin seems that the other”, which is nonsensical.)
Ugliness is subjective and I do not rule out that my own dislike of formulations using “like” is caused by the sheer overuse found in many texts, where legitimate uses are combined with both valley-girl speech and abuse of “looks like”. (Legitimate uses do not only include the twins above but also “like” to indicate affection, as with “I like you”, and quite possibly some other cases too. This indirectly points to another point of criticism, namely, that if a certain word is given too many roles, it can make interpretation unnecessarily hard—and “like” is certainly in dangerous territory in this regard.)
If in doubt, however, avoiding such overuse and such monotony of formulation is a worthy goal in its own right, and there is a risk that a too excessive overuse causes an awareness in the reader that would not have developed with a less excessive overuse.
However, I do not rule out that I overuse some formulations myself, and it is often easier to become aware of patterns of overuse in the writings of others than in one’s own. In other cases, matters of taste can play in, habits can be hard to break, whatnot. I would, for instance, not be the slightest surprised if some readers see me as overusing “whatnot” or, to throw a wider net, including too many side-notes.
Use of “looks” (in combination with “like”, in particular) is also prone to a mistake in senses. For instance, if someone perceives a smell of something being over-fried in the kitchen, “it looks like you are burning the dinner” might be understood by the cook, but borders on the absurd. In contrast, “it seems [...]” does not have that problem. (But an even better formulation might be more explicit about the smell—and nothing here should be seen as a recommendation to not intervene in person.)
An interesting special case is formulations like “formulations like [...]”. I
use these comparatively often, myself, and would see them as justified, if not
perfect, because the main implication is that (in this case) the
“formulations” are a wider family than the one example given, and simply, as
indicated by “like”, share something with that example. Weaknesses do
include that the nature of the similarity is often left to the reader to deduce
and that the example given is also one of the “formulations”, for which
“like” could be seen as misleading. (According to a brief and approximate
evaluation using grep, just now, “issues like”, “factors like”,
“questions like” appear to be the most common uses on this website. I do not rule out that
this is another example of something that I arguably overuse.)
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