"Whatever", Like, Totally Annoys Me, Dude!

At one point, I thought about trying to count how many times the word "like" came up in a conversation; this before I realized the total impossibility of such a task without a high-speed calculator. Somehow, that word has become so ingrained in our speech that we might have to call the Vocab Orkin folks to eradicate it. Seriously. sometimes, it irritates me, and other times (like when I'm using it), the word seems like a natural fit. But at least, it's not "whatever."
A Marist Poll recently released its list of the most annoying words in America based on a sample of responses from 1,020 Americans. Sadly, that;'s the extent of the data on these people: no age category, no gender distinction...so one would have to consider this something less than a random sample. Anyway...
The most reviled word according to the poll, for the second straight year, was the aforementioned "whatever" which garnered 39% of the votes. "Like" was a somewhat distant second, accounting for a 28% slice of the annoyance pie.
In a surprise, "You know what I mean" actually got third place when 15% of the respondents thought it to be the most repulsive thing they hear continually (though, there is some doubt as to whether the question asked for a "word" or a "phrase" or exactly WHAT was asked.
As I get deeper into the shrouded secrets of this group "Marist," I'm beginning to wonder exactly what its agenda is. Seriously, does anyone care deeply about how we speak? I mean, after all, next year will bring new buzz words and phrases, so why obsess about these? I could go on and on since I have a conspiracy theory that is rather involved, but I hear you saying,
"Whatever."