The spoon type matters, mostly due to size/shape/metal composition
Tea and coffee spoons are a thing because they're made smaller to match the requisite cups, soup spoons have a deeper curve to hold more soup, serving and salad spoons are larger so they can be used to serve
If you don't care about the difference though, they're virtually all the same
Honestly, I picked up a few of those on a lark, and they're great to have in the drawer. Anytime I'm trying reach down and get just a little bit out of a deep and mostly empty jar of salsa, honey, or whatever, that soda spoon is the perfect thing. Never used 'em to eat an ice cream float, but lovely for other purposes.
I do the same... I have a few of these and had no idea they were called "soda spoon". I called them "long spoon" because I didn't know the name.
This is also the perfect thing for these bottles of sauce that are too deep for a regular tea spoon, and the mouth of the bottle is too narrow for a table spoon, this works really well.
"An iced tea spoon, also called a soda spoon or a latte spoon, is a thin spoon with a long handle. It is used primarily in the United States for stirring sugar or other sweeteners into iced tea, which is traditionally served in a tall glass."
From Wikipedia. I guess it's just a long, thin stirring spoon
Soda spoon isn't that weird, think of like a float or parfait for which you'd need a really long handle potentially to get to the bottom of a glass. No idea wtf a salad spoon is though.
Salad spoon usually comes paired with a salad fork. It's basically half of a "salad tongs" utensil. Basically meant to pick up bunches of salad out of a salad bowl without crushing the lettuce.
We use those 'soda spoons' as teaspoons in our house, it does the same job but has the extra utility of stirring a giant cup of milo/coffee/whatever, mixing dressings/sauces/marinades, or stirring cocktails.