Just wondering; it seems totally superfluous. In conversation, “so” joins a logical train of thought (cause and effect).
“I lost my keys. So, can you let me in my apartment?”
But with no antecedent, “so” in subject lines is a dead appendage.
“SO” can be used to join two different trains of thought, as in “therefore”, “ergo”, etc…
Beginning a subject with “SO” alludes that the agenda at hand is relevant to previous conversations.
Whoa. I reread your OP, and realized I copied it almost verbatim.
Ignore my first sentence.
So I meant to say:
So I reread your OP…
It’s colloquial. We type like people talk.
To the contrary, I think people often use “so” in conversation to link two entirely different topics. IRL, people use “so” before asking an unrelated question when they don’t have anything better to say, or the conversation has died (“So, how about them [insert local sports mascots]?” or “So, how about that weather?”). Which is why I don’t understand why people use it to preface thread titles here; it sounds like the OP is just writing to fill space and time.
IN the same vein, I noticed when I moved to Ohio years ago that many people started a sentence with the term “why.” Not asking a question-kind-of-why but using it as some use “so.’” Actually, they sometime started a statement with “why, er, …”
So, Seamus Heaney’s translation of Beowulf begins with “so,” and if it’s good enough for Beowulf it’s good enough for me. On second thought, that would mean sleeping on the floor of the mead-hall, wouldn’t it? Never mind…
I do this in real life, and I’m not sure why. I think it’s because filler words catch people’s attention and let them know you’re about to say something, while if you just start in with whatever you’re about to say, the first few words get lost because people aren’t listening. I have no idea why it carries on into the on-line world, except that it just feels unnatural to launch into a long story without prefacing it somehow.
I’d use it at the beginning when issuing a plaintive declaration: “Well, I owe a lot of money, the rent’s due, my dog’s pregnant … So, can I borrow some money? Huh can I?”
I’ve noticed people ending their sentences with the word so. It’s as though they don’t want to stop talking but haven’t thought of what to say next, so…
“I’ve noticed people ending their sentences with the word so. It’s as though they don’t want to stop talking but haven’t thought of what to say next, so…”
Oh man, I do that all the time. Kind of a subconscious habit, I guess. Every once in awhile I notice it, and realize that it sounds stupid.
-Andrew L
I once posed this very same question to a professional speaker who, in general conversation, often started a whole sentence with ‘So’ (‘So, we need to find a solution for…’ or 'So, I was reading the NYT and).
His explanation was: it’s a purely psychological tactic (whether used consciously or not). It is a way of including the group you are speaking with, catching their attention and generating conversation. The word “So” usually prefaces a decision or edict after a discussion and therefore people snap to attention when you use the word. They focus on what you say after the ‘so’ and subconsciously make ready to give an opinion.
Interesting explanation - probably purely off-the-cuff but when I’ve experimented with it seems like it usually does have exactly those results.
As for ending with ‘so’…?!