So what?

Anad Giridharadas looks at “a verbal tic that mimics ‘well,’ ‘um’ or ‘like’ and is exceptionally fitting for the digital age,” the word so. According to Giridharadas, “it is widely believed that the recent ascendancy of ‘so’ began in Silicon Valley [since] ‘so’ suggested a kind of thinking that appealed to problem-solving software types: conversation as a logical, unidirectional process — if this, then that.” Alas, it seems difficult to “Follow my logic,” since a word that is similar to well or um can hardly be described as meaning “if this, then that.”
Yet, so is indeed overused and in fact one of those words to be avoided in writing. It can be used instead of also but only before modal or auxiliary verbs (Average salaries rose, but so did the cost of living). It is appropriate as a conjunction in combination with that (I set two alarm clocks so that I wouldn’t oversleep) to indicate that something is done to make something else possible. In informal settings, so can indicate emphasis as well as take the place of therefore. For instance, one might find Crogs "so 20th century!" but be an enthusiastic "wearer of the FiveFingers almost-shoes [who] can cite practical reasons for sporting monkey-suggestive gear in settings others find inappropriate: you’re supposed to ease into the switch from elaborately engineered athletic shoes, so tooling about the mall in performance footwear makes total sense” ("Bare Necessity" NYTmagazine 5/30/10). However, if used instead of therefore to link two independent clauses that could stand alone, so must be preceded by a semicolon – just as does therefore. Therefore, the sentence should read: “...you’re supposed to ease into the switch from elaborately engineered athletic shoes; so tooling about the mall in performance footwear makes total sense.”
To illustrate the overuse of so, Anad Giridharadas quotes SoS Hillary R. Clinton, saying that “So it’s not only because we believe that universal values support human rights being recognized and respected, but we also think that it’s in the best interest for economic growth and political stability. So we believe that.” The second sentence indeed uses so as a synonym of therefore - or in the logical sense of “if this, then that” while in the first sentence so means also .