Overuse of the term "Aye"

[DeepBlue7]

Overuse of the word "Aye"
I'm 16 years old and I've noticed pretty quickly here that everyone at school and just alot of people in general say "aye" an awful lot, to the point where I can't understand why they're saying it. Typically, people in school will talk like:

Hi, aye, what are you doing?
Nothing, aye
I'm going out, aye
Oh where, aye
I'm not telling you, aye

and so on and so fourth...

I just want to know, asking NZers here, why is the word overused so much??
I know the UK has "init" but very few people would use the word ALL the time

[Taffy]

Hi,

Where do you live? I know the kiwis use "Aye" a fair bit, but not that much and usually in context! I'm just wondering whether its use is more prolific in certain areas.

[Welshgirl]

He's in Wellington, Taff

[johnty]

been here 4 months and my daughter is using eh quite alot,
its cool though eh seems to be her catch phrase.
my mate in hawkes bay has got the" eh fever" quite bad too

[selchie]

That reminds me of how in high school we used "like" as our word to fill in the gaps. Like, we talked so like fast, that like I suppose our brains like needed time to like catch up. Sometimes it became a game to count how many times our friends said it, and to avoid saying it ourselves. Now I hear a lot of folks say "um".

[kokopeli]

Eh
Eh!
Eh?

[MotherBear]

Originally Posted by selchie

That reminds me of how in high school we used "like" as our word to fill in the gaps. Like, we talked so like fast, that like I suppose our brains like needed time to like catch up.

Oh and there was me thinking that was just a UK thing. Seems more prevalent in certain parts of the UK like Birmingham and Liverpool, like.