So...

[mswjr]

So....why do more and more spoken sentences nowadays seem to start with, So...?

It is a recent phenomenon, isn't it? Or am I imagining it?

Is it media training for talking heads on tv, to get the sentence going?

If so, it has rapidly spread out of the box and become pervasive. Trouble is,every So... sets off an idle mental perambulation of its origins and the subsequent content gets entirely missed.

[ThirdWay]

So, so you think you can tell...

[Itsallaguess]

So, so you think you can tell...

So, so you think you can tell
Heaven from Hell

[poundcoin]

Some blame Microsoft types and also Mark Zuckeburg Facebook chap... I blame Tony Blair ! he looks like the sort that would use it.
More here :
http://english.stackexchange.com/questi ... a-sentence

[mswjr]

Some interesting links there, thank you.
So,.. I'm not imagining it, but have clearly been slow to notice its use over the years.
The trouble now, is that every future time I hear it, I will find myself ruminating on whether it could be a delaminator, a discourse marker, or indeed whether it was being used conjunctionally.
The chances of being able to concentrate on what follows have been further eroded.
So, .. maybe it is better to simply blame Tony Blair and be done with it.

[kempiejon]

So, so you think you can tell...

So, so you think you can tell
Heaven from Hell

Blue skies from pain,
1975,

[Tortoise1000]

I have observed two usages. One is defensive, in speech. For example in a radio intervew:

'What is your organisation doing about x?'
'So, we are (words amounting to not very much)'.

The other is narcissistic, in writing; a lazy attempt to gain the reader's attention with a portentous opening. A faux in media res:

'So, I was in town this morning and (boring self-centered anecdote)'.

As you can guess I find both these usages very irritating!

Sometimes the first of these is combined with the two other annoying mannerisms of lazy speech, namely raising the voice at the end of each sentence and speaking in a raucous un-modulated tone. At this point I turn the radio off, it's intolerable

T

[MonsterMork]

Forget "So", my pet peeve is "I mean". It has become so pervasive into common parlance to start a sentence with "I mean" that it makes me want to reach out and greet people warmly by the throat

[brightncheerful]

So could be a shortened version of 'therefore' where the run-up to that conclusion is omitted from the communication.
It could also precede a question.

Short version:
So you think it's going to rain today? So, it's not.

Long version:
So you think it's going to rain today? Not according to the weather forecast. So, it's not

Um, cool!

Alternatively:
http://www.npr.org/2015/09/03/432732859/so-whats-the-big-deal-with-starting-a-sentence-with-so

[gryffron]

BUT
It is good news that all the generation of politicians who used to wave their hands about like demented Thunderbird puppets whenever they were speaking, have finally disappeared. Blair, Brown, Cameron, Milliband. That used to drive me mad. Interestingly, a small number of people, mostly showbiz types, can do it and look genuine. But all those career politicians who had been coached by their publicity people to do it looked fake and crazed. Blissfully, the current crop don't seem to have copied this foul habit.

(If you've never noticed, it will now drive you crazy too - sorry)

gryff

[AleisterCrowley]

Not as annoying as;
"And I'm,like,....."

[Slarti]

So....why do more and more spoken sentences nowadays seem to start with, So...?

It is a recent phenomenon, isn't it? Or am I imagining it?

Is it media training for talking heads on tv, to get the sentence going?

If so, it has rapidly spread out of the box and become pervasive. Trouble is,every So... sets off an idle mental perambulation of its origins and the subsequent content gets entirely missed.

With a lot of people it seems to have taken the place of "Err," because they haven't yet worked out what they want to say and can't stand the silence while they try to think.

Or so it seems to me.

Slarti

[brightncheerful]

With a lot of people it seems to have taken the place of "Err," because they haven't yet worked out what they want to say and can't stand the silence while they try to think.

Reminds of a joke told about Jack Benny, the American comedian known for comic timing and the ability to cause laughter with a pregnant pause:

While we're waiting for the next word, here's some music