IELTS Speaking for Success - 🔗 Social Media (S08E09) + Transcript

Episode Date: November 7, 2022

Do you like social media? Why? Why not? Which social media do you often use? Do you think your friends spend too much time on social media? Do you want to work in a social media company? What is the most popular form of social media in your country? Why? Tune in and have a great day! - Watch the video version of this episode: https://youtu.be/dRthv_HuIjU Get exclusive episodes on IELTS Speaking parts 1, 2, and 3: https://linktr.ee/sfspremium Our course on Phrasal Verbs: https://successwithielts.com/podcourses Transcript: https://successwithielts.com/s08e09 Our IELTS Writing podcast: https://linktr.ee/wfspremium Find an IELTS Speaking Partner: https://links.successwithielts.com/ieltspartner Our social media: https://linktr.ee/successwithielts © 2022 Success with IELTS Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What are we doing? Oh, I like it the social media. No, I do not. Hello, Sunshine. I'm Maria. And my name is Rory, and we are the hosts of the AILT Speaking for Success Podcasts. The podcast that aims to help you improve your speaking skills, as well as your listening skills along the way. We've started this podcast to give you gorgeous grammar and fabulous vocabulary for your high IELD school, Band-Nine score.

Rory! Are you on Instagram now? Maybe. Uh-huh. Get off social media this instant. Fine, I will. If we can talk about social media. Oh, it's a coincidence on this podcast?

Are we going to talk about social media? Yes, social media. Yeah, dear listener, in Ireland speaking part one, they can ask you questions about social media. But before we talk about social media, let's talk about our grammar focus. which is mixed conditionals to reflect my mixed feelings on the matter. What is a mixed conditional?

We're not going to talk about that now. We'll talk about it at the end. Oh my God, Rory, are you sure? Yes. You're a nature speaker. You're not supposed to know what mixed conditionals are. Are you sure? I know, but I'm being brave and I'm going to try some mixed conditionals.

Remember, we're just integrating them into most of the answers to provide some rich examples, but you don't need to do that for every single answer that you. you give in your iL speaking test. This is just to help you along the way. Do you like social media? I suppose if I'd been asked that this time last year, then I would say no, because I really don't, or I really didn't like it. But I've kind of come to appreciate it with the exception of the kind of click-baity content

that's quite popular these days. Which social media do you often use? Well, it's hard to say, since however, really, luckton I am, I'm on it constantly. However, if I didn't have a choice in the matter, I would probably say, or I would have said Instagram, because, well, there's just, I have a wider audience on there, and there's greater variety in terms of content. Do you think your friends spend too much time on social media? Absolutely. They seem glued to their screens now, constantly answering their DMs. If I were there when they were designing these sites,

I wouldn't have these issues now since I'd have removed them all at the time. Do you want to work in a social media company? Well, I might have a job there now if I hadn't been such a terrible student in my IT classes, to be honest with you. The concepts of coding and web development are a bit beyond me now, to be honest. What's the most popular form of social media in your country? There are different forms. I had absolutely no idea. And I suppose I'd have been able to give a better answer if I'd had time to research it more, well, in greater depth. If we divide it by age group and interest, then Twitter's popular amongst politically minded adults,

and Instagram is popular for sort of content-obsessed millennials, and then TikTok is popular amongst self-obsessed zoomers, probably. Thank you, Roy, for your positive answers. Oh, social media, it's a nightmare. This week on our super premium for you, Speaking part two, describe a popular place for doing sports. Oh, yeah, I know. And in speaking part three, we're going to discuss sports and children in general.

The links are in the description. Do check them out. If you don't want to buy any premium episodes and you want to say thank you, you can make a donation. Or you can just get Rory a cup of coffee. Rory, you drink coffee, right? I drink coffee. So you can make a donation and get a donation. Rory a cup of nice coffee, the link is the description.

Oh, or help Rory with his driving lessons. This will also be helpful. And this would help to make our videos free and we will feel your support and keep these episodes free for you. To give you a little bit of context, like two years ago, Rory did not have an Instagram account, Rory didn't have Facebook, Rory didn't even know what YouTube was, So he was, you know, like, clueless. He was like from a kid. Okay, hold on a minute. I knew what YouTube was.

I just didn't post anything on there. And I still don't. I get Vanya to do all of that for me. Thank you, Vanya. Roy, do you know what TikTok is? It's something that crazy young people engage with, and I have no idea about it at all. Even though we have a TikTok,

and you can find us there. How can you find us there? I don't know. Vanya's going to tell me now. Vanya, how can you do it? Okay, Vanya's telling me that anything I say the link is always in the description. So look in the description for anything I say.

Well, that's true, actually, because the transcripts are linked in the description too. So now there is no need to contact us directly on Instagram or send us emails. You can find the links to that in the description as well. Social media. Media. So it's plural. So social media are important, right? No, social media is important. Well, it's not.

It's frivolous and stupid. But it's always social media is. What? is... Wait, wait, wait. I've just opened a Wikipedia page and social media. Social media are interactive technologies that facilitate the creation and sharing of information ideas. Well, that's wrong. Social media is a set of interactive technologies. And also, why are you on Wikipedia? Wikipedia is like the worst place to look for information on things. Wait, but isn't media plural? Well, it can be a plural form, but social media.

The term social media is both singular and plural in modern English usage. Oh good, in modern English usage, when the language is a total disaster area. The word media is traditionally a plural because medium is the singular. I can just about guarantee you, if you say social media are, the examiner's going to be like, mm-hmm. Really? Are you joking? So social media is? Yeah, because usually we talk about social media as just one thing in general. All right, deal listener, yeah. So social media could be is or are, right?

Again, in modern English, Rory is insisting that social media is. Rory is insisting that it's is because he is correct. Interesting. Okay, so let's just notice which verbs do we have with social media. Let's notice and make the correct choice social media is. Okay, interesting, all right. Yeah, let us know in the comments. Have you ever seen social media are and where have you seen it?

And then tell Rory he is right. Thank you. I'd say I loathed it. That's another interesting word which is easy to pronounce. Loathed it. Loathed, I loath it. I do not like it. Do you really use this word?

I loathe. Yes, but you use it in specific circumstances when you're talking about something that you really, really don't like, and I really don't like social media. Still. I really didn't like it, and now I hate it less than I used to. Okay, there we go. So I would say I loathe it in the past, and now I would say I just hate it. Yeah, you can say, I hated it, I disliked it, I used to hate it, or I loathed it,

if you can pronounce it, like loath, loathed it. That's a good pronunciation practice, though. Clickbait videos. a clickbait. So if, for example, our video is called... Rory and Maria are shutting down the podcast. Yeah, or like the secret of all secrets of band nine. Like, the best strategy ever, I don't know.

Or Rory grew wings. Rory is not Scottish. Yeah, so something like this. And you would go, oh, and you would click on this video and you would watch it. and yeah so clickbait a clickbait video we post content on instagram so it's the same as like i post content on facebook on instagram on tic-tok the proposition is always on right well it should be yeah and you post content on somewhere for an audience and the audience are the people who view your content or the people that it's intended for or you can say i saw it on it on it

Instagram. I saw it on Facebook. I saw it on TikTok. But content is a nice specialist word. Yes. I'm on it constantly. I'm constantly on Instagram. And Rory, most of the time, you are constantly on Instagram, right? Or you go Facebook, Instagram, Facebook, Instagram. No, it's almost always Instagram. So if people want to find me and talk to me, get in touch on Instagram. I sound really sad about that. I like talking to people on Instagram, but some of the things I I see on there, I'm like, oh, this is so stupid. And what would you call a person who is always on Instagram? An Instagram freak?

Dead, dead on the inside. That's what I would call them. Don't listen to him. He's, you know, he's old school. Rory is like, you know, old schools. What would I call them? And they'd probably be like, I don't know, an Instagram addict maybe? Instagram addicts, right?

So people are addicted to social media, addicted to Instagram, addicted to Facebook. so yeah, Instagram addicts or Facebook addicts. We spend too much time on social media. Again, spend time on Instagram, on Facebook, scrolling back and forth. And you've used a nice one. People seem glued to the screens. So your screen and you're glued. Oh my God.

Is that idiomatic language for a high score? Penn Nine School. Yes, it's idiomatic language, which is good for you, to be glued to the screen. Yeah, not literally glued Not with glue, with the ice DMs We answer our DMs Sometimes, yeah

Are direct messages Look at you, Rory You are using abbreviations Fancy and modern, wow But that's just another way of saying Someone's chatting to you online I mean, I know people are like Oh, direct messages, that's when people contact you directly

It's like, yeah, it's a chat function And just giving it a different name To sell it to people And now for this mixed conditional Roy, I'm actually afraid to ask you about this I'm afraid you ask me about it too, to be honest with you. Okay, if we look at an example that you gave us here, if I had been there when they were designing social media websites,

I wouldn't have these issues. Oh my God, since I'd have removed the option. No, I'm not discussing this. So, we're talking about. something in the past which I didn't have control of in order to talk about the future consequences which I am experiencing now that I wouldn't have if the situation had not happened. No, it doesn't make any sense. No, it's not easy. I don't understand. Okay. Dielsen, if it's a bit beyond you, if you don't understand anything, don't use mixed conditions. They are quite clumsy.

They are bulky. They are difficult and it's, you know, because... But they are amazing for getting a band nine score. So let's look at the... because I've typed out here. So, listen, if I had been, or if I'd been there when they were designing these sites, so a situation in the past which had to happen because sites get designed in the past. Are we with me so far, Maria?

No. No? Okay. I wasn't there. I wish I had been, but I was not. I wouldn't have these issues, these issues being my friends being glued to their screen now, because I would have removed the option to have direct messages.

There we go. Are you joking? Like, seriously? No. Oh, boy. Oh, boy. Do listener, maybe it's, if kind of you are upper intermediate or you feel you are advanced, so your level is very high, right?

Upper intermediate advanced. You can go and Google mixed conditionals in your own language and read above them and then come back, read our script, and think about this difference in time and then you can also ask questions in the comments. Mixed conditionals in the comments. Let's have this mixed conditional discussion in the comments because I don't think I can...

Or contact Maria with your examples on Instagram and she will answer them for you. She will check them every single one. Ah, mixed conditions. Why do you not like mixed conditionals? I think they're hard to use and you should be kind of like advanced like truly advanced and you should be able

to kind of understand it and use it just like that you know Mix Conditionals are connecting the past to the future or the past to the present or some variation of that Yeah yeah no they are great to use alright but I'm just feeling that our dear listener is sitting there

and is going What? Whatever I got it right and it worked for me and I have Band-Lyne. Yeah. Aren't we awesome? We are. Well, look, there's another mix conditional in the next example.

Should we talk about the vocabulary first before you have another meltdown? Yeah, yeah, okay. Let's pull yourself together. Come on. Come on. I have my super rabbit. All right. Pink, pink, pink.

It's a pinky episode. All right. Vocabulary. Coding and web development are different aspects, not just of social media, but of websites in general. So you can apply these concepts to those areas too. So for example, if we talk about, where was it, web development?

That's just the process of developing a website. And you said that now it's beyond me. It's like coding, no, this, no. So it's beyond me. It's like far too much for me. So I'm not going to go into there. It's beyond me or it's alien to me because it's something so strange, I just don't understand.

understand it and I don't understand it, which is why I grossly oversimplified web development there. I know web development is a really complex topic, but it's just, it's a lot. And we only have like 20 minutes. And we have our mixed conditional. So Rory said, I might have a job there. So they're in a social media company. I might have a job there now, now, now, right? not now, if in the past I hadn't been such a terrible student in the past at school, Rory at school, right? So he was a terrible student. If he hadn't been a terrible student, he might get a job now.

Oh my gosh. I'm explaining. I feel like how difficult this is. Yeah. So I might have a job now. I may have a job now. I could have a job now. Right.

Present. If I hadn't been. Pass perfect, because we are talking about the past. So, connecting possible present to possible past. Okay. Are you okay, dear listener? Are you okay? Please say you're okay.

I'm doing great. What's wrong with you? We have different forms of social media or different kinds of social media, right? Apparently, you can see from my reaction that I was very surprised to learn this. And then Rory told us about TikTok. You can mention your local social media. or Snapchat. However, we can also, when we refer to social media,

we can talk about different groups of people or different generations that engage in social media. So we have adults who are like the grown-ups, like proper grown-ups. And then we have the millennials who are just behind them in their 20s and 30s. Well, actually, I guess they're all in 30s and 40s now, in fact. And the Zoomers are just behind. They're like the teenagers now. And you can say that we can divide the forms of social media by age groups.

right so divide something by age groups and then like politically minded people prefer this right green minded people prefer this green who are environmentally friendly things and you said that self-obsessed people yeah i'm really sorry if you're under the age of 20 i've just called you self-obsessed but really their generation is extremely self-obsessed i say this as if our generation's not like We're pretty bad for those too. But that just means you're obsessed with yourself. To be bothered to pay attention to social media. So if I bother to pay attention to something, I kind of find.

You have the motivation to do it. Yeah. Okay, I don't bother with Instagram. I can't be bothered with social media. It's not my thing to post stuff every day. Right. Oh, it's my thing, right? I really enjoy it.

Yeah, I'm obsessed with Instagram. I'm a Facebook addict, right, a TikTok addict, TikTokaholic, Facebookaholic, Instagramaholic, like shopaholic, right? But yeah, I don't think these words exist, actually. We can, you know, be creative and like, you know, I'm a bit of an Instagramaholic and look at the exam, like, come on, like I'm kind of joking, you know. But maybe in the exam is not the best time to invent those words. Yeah, yeah, we kind of play safe. Yeah, in. the exam. Now, mixed conditionals, Roy, you did use mixed conditionals. I used mixed conditionals and Maria had to use all of her cognitive power to not have a breakdown while we talked about them. So you said that I suppose I would have been able to give a better answer

if I bothered to pay attention to them. Okay. And why not if I had to pay attention to them? Okay. And why not if I had bothered. Why not indeed? You probably could have said that too. Okay, it's a nice excuse. You can say this, you can say that. I mean it's a nice excuse. I suppose if I had bothered would be like in the past, but if I bothered to pay

attention to them would be like I just don't do it in general now. Oh, okay, okay, I see. So we have the third conditional three, conditional three and the second. So we mix the third with the second. So I'd have been able, but I wasn't able in the past. If now I bothered, but I don't bother. Oh, my God. It was like in the immediate past as well, because it was like in the like five seconds previously

when you asked me the question, I was like, oh, there are. I have no idea. I suppose I'd have been able to give a better answer 10 seconds ago if I bothered to pay attention. Like if I bothered to do it like if I did it now or if I've been able to. have I had done it previously in the past. Okay, dear listener, please bear with us. All right, so this is like high level stuff. This is super high level stuff.

It is not super high level. Usually we don't give, you know, such depth and the mixed, the mixed conditionals. But if you are on top of the world, yeah, with your upper intermediate advanced, and if you want to kind of move your grammar forward, you know, there to a band nine, you should really understand the mixed conditionals. Yeah, because this is advanced. This is C2 level, proficiency, not even advanced. Band 9.

We talked about getting people to Band 9, and maybe for some of them this is the next step. Look at the good I do. Thank you. You're welcome. Thank you, Rory, for supporting us with your mixed conditionals. And with saying, yeah, you can say this, you can say that, you know. It's just... Say whatever you like.

It doesn't matter. It just must be correct. I don't have a joke about social media. Sorry. Social media is a joke. Get off of social media. Get outside and like feel the grass underneath your feet for heaven's sake. No, no, but why are you so negative about social media? Come on. This is like, why? What's, what's your problem, Rory? It's, it's our everyday world today. We are on Instagram. Exactly. It is our everyday world today. It distracts us from the real world, from our friends and our family. It should be complimenting life, not taking it over like it constantly is. So put the phone, no, wait, finish this video, then put the phone down, and then go outside. It's also our business.

Like people do business, people make money because of social media. I know, they do. But even I tell people who talk to me, like, who want to be my students. I always say, like, we're having the lesson for one hour and then we're finishing the lesson, and I'm going outside because I'm not spending all day sat on a computer. Although admittedly, that's teaching. It's not social media. but this is the reason why I only teach for an hour

and then I go and do something else because I'm not spending all day looking at a screen. No, that's silly. Have a like. Do it's not. If you do want to spend the whole day looking at our faces or whatever we do, we have Telegram, we have Instagram,

the links are in the description. You can go, check it out, our Instagram, Facebook, Telegram accounts. And also on Telegram, we have a group, where you can find a speaking partner. Yeah, the link is in the description. So to practice your English with a person, she just go there, find a speaking partner, a speaking buddy,

and talk to them. Discuss Rory and how horrible he is. And then go outside. Go into the real world. Thank you very much for listening, sending hugs and joy. If you do want to say thank you, you can make a donation. The link is the description.

And these donations help us to make these videos for free, for you. So we are renting out this nice place. We are buying the equipment. So if you can donate something to us, we would be super grateful. The link is in the description. See you next time. Bye. Bye.

Do you like social media? I suppose if I'd been asked that this time last year, then I would say, hey, no, because I really don't, or I really didn't like it. But I've kind of come to appreciate it with the exception of the kind of click-baity content that's quite popular these days. Which social media do you often use? Well, it's hard to say, since however reluctant I am, I'm on it constantly. However, if I didn't have a choice in the matter, I would probably say, or I would have said Instagram, because, well, there's just, I have a wider audience on there,

and there's greater variety in terms of content. Do you think your friends spend too much time on social media? Absolutely. They seem glued to their screens now, constantly answering their DMs. If I were there when they were designing these sites, I wouldn't have these issues now since I'd have removed them all at the time. Do you want to work in a social media company? Well, I might have a job there now

if I hadn't been such a terrible student in my IT classes, to be honest with you. The concepts of coding and webbeds, development are a bit beyond me now, to be honest. What's the most popular form of social media in your country? There are different forms. I had absolutely no idea. And I suppose I'd have been able to give a better answer if I'd had time to research it more, well, in greater depth. However, if we divide it by age group and interest, then Twitter's popular amongst politically minded adults and Instagram is popular for sort of content-obsessed most.

millennials and then TikTok is popular amongst self-obsessed zoomers, probably.