That's true for everyone sometimes. I've done it plenty. I seem to do it a lot on the phone...
But last semester, one guy in my creative writing class would talk for an entire minute, and say almost nothing. His speech was half comprised of "like" and "um" and "sort of" and "you know." There were very few words of any content.
I wonder how he got to that point, where his speech was so inefficient. Maybe it's because he was nervous about talking during class?
And then there was one teacher that gave a few lectures during one course, and he used the word "um" in most of his sentences. And once you start to notice the "ums," that's all you hear. --_--
"Ums" are common when students have to present something. I do my best to keep them to a minimum, because they are really distracting.
And then there's the word "like." I wrote a post on this a long time ago. Sometimes "like" is effective. For example, "I like crunchy apples."
But when people talk (me included) we stick in all these random "likes" that have, like, no purpose at all.
I think "like" is the one I use the most. I should try to cut those out some more.
It would be good if we could think more about what we say, and how we word it. During presentations or talks, it's especially important to be clear and concise. I've gotten quite a bit of practice with that so far, so I'm fairly decent with it. I'd like to get better.
But even in everyday speech, it would be helpful too. And of course in writing.
I should think about that some more...
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