One of the most widely held language peeves is use of the word "literally" in any sense other than "exactly according to definition." In recent years, the meaning has shifted from its original meaning to one that means "figuratively" — essentially, the exact opposite meaning.
But it turns out that development isn't nearly as recent as most people think. "Literally" has been used to exaggerate for hundreds of years in English, including by esteemed authors like Charles Dickens, Charlotte Brontë, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and James Joyce.
According to Merriam-Webster, the practice dates back to at least 1789, and in 1909, the dictionary noted that the word is "often used hyperbolically; as, 'he literally flew.'"
So there's nothing wrong, uneducated, or even new about using "literally" for hyperbolic effect — people have been doing it for centuries, and many of them are some of our greatest English minds.