'So'

[ItsTricky]

I'm not sure if this has been happening forever, or if I'm only noticing it (and finding it irritating) now.

When I see/hear people being interviewed on TV or radio they often start answers to questions with 'So,... '

For example.

(Interviewer) 'Tell us about your new show'

(Interviewee) 'So, it's based on a true story..'

In your example Maidofstars that makes perfect sense but I regularly hear interviews on the radio where the interviewee is answering the questions starting with so.

For example

Interviewer - Dr X, what's the weather like with you today?

Dr X - So, it's a sunny day here.

And it is often as ridiculous as that

I think we just get into the pattern of using it!

'So' used to sum up or round up the content of preceding sentences is absolutely fine.

It's the 'so' that is used to start a conversation, as if it's an ongoing one, that's annoying.

Such as.. 'So, what did you think of Britain's Got Talent' last night?

My frenemy neighbour does it, so I am hard-wired to loathe it.

According to DH it has taken over from basically, which,basically, was being used all the time.
He tenses whenever he hears so, basically,literally and of course, I was sat...
He is tense a lot of the time.

Absolutely...

I remember hearing it ad infinitum on The OC, an American soap targeting teens circa 2003.

So I associate its usage with that, so to speak &c &c.

It's dreadful. I hear it all the time on the Today programme.

Anchorperson: Dr X, welcome. Can you tell us about the cure for the common cold you believe you have found?

Scientist: So, it involves eating raw onions 15 times a day...

Anchorperson: John Smith, you went to see the new George Clooney film last night. What did you think of it?

John Smith: So, it's had wall to wall publicity....

It has infiltrated my workplace and taken root in most people's heads. There are some who appear physically incapable of starting any sentence without "so...".
It does drive me nuts. I don't do it. I am guilty of saying "like" unnecessarily though, which is just as bad . I try really hard to stop myself. There's no excuse really.

Never noticed it before but I bet I hear it all the time now it's been brought to my attention.
My dd's constant use of 'like' drives me demented though.
And politicians who start sentences with 'look'. That irrititates no end.

My DS(12) and his friends have brought a new fresh hell to conversations.

"I asked John if he was ok, and he was like to me Yes thanks I'm fine".

'He was like to me???'

Not all the time but I think I'm guilty of starting a written sentence with "So." It's with a full stop and it's my verbal equivalent of a sigh or a "I'm about to impart a situation that requires you to experience the level of "sigh-ness" or "fait accomplis" that accompanies it"

I like the "so"! (Dons hard hat.)
I like the way it adds life to the sentence, starts it off with an oomph.
eg It saves repetition but links back to the previous sentence. "What's the weather like?" "The weather is sunny" is very dry/dull. Ditto for "It's dry and sunny" but "So, dry and sunny here" just sounds so much more involved to me probably because it doesn't stand on its own as a sentence iyswim.

tomato that made me chuckle and reminded me of someone I used to work with that started almost everything they said with "So, basically..."

Hookedonhooking so pleased that this bugs someone else. It drives me mad. I wonder if it was Eastenders that started it off, because it seems to have been adopted by the whole population now. How are you* "Yeah I'm good thanks" or "how you doing" "yeah I'm fine" or even "yes I'm fine"
There's no need for the yeah or the yes. It DOESNT MAKE SENSE!!!

There is the occasional 'yeah no' too.

'Is your back better?'

Yeah no it's still bad'

Will i am of the voice fame ( amoungst other stuff) started this craze.. It was the first person i heard on tv saying it. Even i do it now and inwardly cringe when i hear others do it. Its catching.

My ghastly step mother used to use "so" more than a decade ago and I found it highly irritating. She would use it to try to give more importance to her banal observations. She had one of those annoying radio four type voices. More recently I've noticed "do you know what" being bandied round much more than really necessary.

The80s - you are so right! I had to tell DP he kept doing it and it was making him sound stupid. He took it well and was glad I'd pointed it out. It's today's 'you know': a pointless, irritating filler.

My ds does that yeah thing, along with 10,000 other linguistic abominations.

'how are you?'

'yeah, good thanks'. The 'good' thing is annoying too.

Other ds had a friend here today who I heard say to him, 'where are your crisps at?'

The guy on W1A the geeky intern does that 'yeah, cool, yeah , right ' thing. I am guessing the younger generation do this a lot, as well as So... Its just filler, but i do it too when not thinking first. Have to engage brain before speaking
.

..there is a celeb woman scientist that the news drag out for science / going to live on mars topics, she is very bubbly and obviously very clever, knows all about nuclear physics probably has 3 degrees and friends with steven hawking - she was asked a question and, you ve guessed it started. 'So' its everywhere. Young, old, v clever, average, they are all at it.

So you have a problem with 'so'? So???

Yanbu. Gives me the rage too. Chandler used to start conversations with it in Friends and I found it novel at the time- it was like he was starting a conversation in the middle, but now it want to make me punch the radio when, as others have mentioned, interviewees use it repeatedly.
Bit like when people say "can I get (eg) a coffee", a linguistic querk I thought for years was confined to Friends.