Literally? I doubt it.

What is it with this word? Why do so many people use it nowadays where it doesn't make any sense? It does not emphasize your point and make your listeners more impressed with whatever you're saying. It makes it seem like you don't understand the meaning of the word "literally".

That class was so boring it was literally torture having to sit there.

Really?  Are you sure? Did you get thumb screws? Bamboo picks slammed under your finger nails?  Oh, I know - the teacher broke every bone in your legs by lifting a large wooden wagon wheel and repeatedly slamming it down on you as you lay spread-eagle tied to four stakes!  I just read a book set in the Middle Ages which included two scenes involving torture, and I assure you that forcing the unfortunate criminal to sit in a class at school was not one of the methods used.

That experiment literally blew my mind!

Eww. And still, like Humpty Dumpty in his dreams, somehow someone put you back together? That must have been ugly business.  "Blew my mind" is fine - there's nothing wrong with such figures of speech, until you add the word "literally".  Stop it.

Teenspeak: I am literally starving!

I don't like the use of this word to mean "rather hungry" with so many people in the world actually starving. If you are reading this on a laptop, Ipad, Smartphone, etc., you are not - and likely never have been - anything close to starving. Don't be an insensitive dolt. Just because you couldn't get your hands on a Snickers bar during the last two or even four hours - or because you had to skip one meal - doesn't mean you're starving. There is an extended period of "very hungry" before starvation ever becomes a threat.

I literally just wrote four paragraphs about this word.

Now, see? That one's ok, because "literally" means "actually," and I actually wrote four paragraphs. Are you duly impressed? Are you more impressed than if I had only written "I just wrote four paragraphs about this word"?  I doubt it. This word is unnecessary, empty, useless filler. It also does not help when you put aggressive emphasis on the word when saying it, or underlining when writing it.

I literally want you to stop using this word when you want people to take you seriously.