Trends in speech patterns?? Anyone notice.........

So, my husband and I had a conversation about this the other day! We agreed it's a tad irritating as is ending a sentence with so . . . . and leaving it hanging.

You know, so is ok to use, you know, right? Believe me!!

Listen for "sort of" also. I can't stop noticing it.

I can’t really get excited about it. My pet peeves are improper grammar and misspelling. But I have noticed it.

Look, so, well you know, we all have little quirks when we're talking. Well, I mean, I tend to start a lot of sentences with well, and I mean that's actually, well, like really annoying. So...

A term I like. Completely non-commital. 

I don’t think starting a sentence with so is new. I know I have done it for a long time. In fact, I believe I was mocked for starting a thread with “So...” on the old board. Now I try to make a conscious effort not to begin my threads that way. Because of the aforementioned mocking.

I use so a lot. I try to be conscious of it though and I tend to rewrite things when I notice that I've used it too much.

I have noticed people on news shows saying and I've chalked it up to the "dumbing down" they try to do with their presentation.

This is becoming epidemic. I get it when you make a statement and then try to clarify or re-word with "I mean..."

But I'm noticing that a lot of young people, when interviewed, START OFF their answer with "I mean..."

Odd.

Using "myself" in place of "me" drives me batty. I think people think "myself" is the more educated sounding option, but IT MAKES NO SENSE! "Me" is a perfectly acceptable and proper word.

I've noticed it is used a lot in interviews since I've started listening to NPR. That and starting with "Sure...-whatever the answer is-" when asked a question. I mentioned it to DH, he thinks it's because they want the reporting to sound more conversational, to draw the listener in. I think it makes the reporters sound very young. Maybe they are?

Yes, I have noticed it. It doesn’t really bother me, though.

Our university has a vice president for advancement who does this, and it is distracting.

I wish I could have liked this many, many times!  TV presenters who say "Join myself and other presenter" has my spine tensing up.  

Further up I was agreeing that I don't like So at the start of speech but it can be fine, particularly if the person saying it is the first in the conversation and is sort of laying their cards on the table.  What I don't like is tv reporting where interviewees use So at the start of every response.  Someone mentioned that maybe people are young.  I think that's part of it and so much texting is done that younger people are not getting the hang of starting or ending a conversation.  I get the feeling it's almost like a verbal emoji.  Of course, my speech and writings are always perfectly formed.