And let's defend 'like' for say. 'Like' is invariably used to suggest the tone, attitude, reaction of the given speaker and is accompanied by a look, tone, or gesture to illustrate what the speaker was 'like' in their thinking and response. You'll notice that speakers still use 'he said', 'she said' and 'I said'. The trouble is that most users are young and a lot, if not all, of their related conversations are infused with emotion which would not be there in older people