I don't think my example is generally used as an adverb, but I've wondered for some time how the mindless overuse of the word "like" originated and (if there's a why) why.
"So she was like, 'like' as if I know,' and I'm like, wow, and then she's like, 'so I said to him, like, whatever you think because, like, I'm..." And on and on.
The tendency to use the word incorrectly does not seem confined to the ditzy; I've heard it many times from well-educated people on various newscasts or in videos.
"So, Barb, tell us, is it like hot out there?" Good grief! It's hot or it's not.
Could these things be linguistic markers used to measure how dumb we're becoming, or is the whanging in my head every time I hear "like" or one of chezza's -ly's just another case of a geezer failing to understand the young?