So.....

[dinosaw]

Am I the only person to have noticed the increasing use of this word as a space filler at the start of a sentence

It seems to be something that has originated with the so called 'millennials' with one article attributing it's popularity to Mark Zuckerberg but has been taken up by people of all ages. Nothing new in space fillers of course, in Germany they use "Ja", the Aussies start sentences with "Look" and "Well" has been used here for a long time but there is something about "So" that just seems to jar with me not sure what it is, I think I'll stick to my Erms while I think no matter how annoying they may be.

 

[rick]

No, it drives me mad too!
Often used by anyone with an academic lilt, out of habit I think but as if to qualify the following statements:
(missing arguments to support answer to question)... So, (answer to question)
As used by practically everyone under 30 being interviewed on radio 4.

 

[dinosaw]

Encouraging to see I'm not alone, sometimes wonder if I'm going mad with stuff like this, hopefully it will go the same way as groovy, bonking and daddy-o.

 

[MrsBiscuit]

I know someone who uses 'so' a lot. The word seems to have 2 uses, either to change the subject of a conversation, which is fair enough, or to get everybody else's attention to what she is about to say. Being charitable maybe this is because she runs a busy household and has to shout for attention, but the net effect is often that all other conversation stops, whilst we all (often a group of adults) wait for the pronouncement. I find it quite irritating...grump, grump, grump