How often do we use fillers to fill up the empty spaces in between our words?

We might use empty words such as ‘well’, ‘actually’, ‘you know’ etc. as a stalling device to gain time to think of what to say or how to bring our message across.

This thought has been lingering in my mind for some time, and it suddenly occurred to me that this does not only happen in verbal communication, but also across the internet.

How many of you “haha” when you aren’t really laughing? The topic may be on the funny side, and laughing would be a “polite” reply. However, what if the topic isn’t funny at all. This time, “haha-ing” would be a filler.

I have a friend who “haha” whenever. He types this in almost every sentence, funny or not. Now I know, he’s using it as a filler.

I have another friend, who “hahahahahahahaha”. She says it’s a habit and she can’t stop using it. Yes, she literally uses that many haha.

So now I have a question, do you people “haha” to fill up the empty space and to make the conversation less harsh, or do you really laugh when you type those words?