IELTS Speaking for Success - 🔗 Social media (S10E11) + Transcript

Episode Date: March 24, 2024

Do you like using social media? When did you start using social media? Do you spend too much time on social media? What do you do on social media? Tune in and have a great day! - Book a class with Rory here: https://successwithielts.com/rory 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/s10e11 Our IELTS Writing course: https://linktr.ee/wfspremium Find an IELTS Speaking Partner: https://links.successwithielts.com/ieltspartner Our social media: https://linktr.ee/successwithielts © 2024 Success with IELTS Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hello, lovely. I'm Maria. And my name is Rory, and we're the host of the AIL Speaking for Success podcast, the podcast that aims to help you improve your speaking skills, as well as your listening skills along the way. We started this podcast to give you gorgeous grammar and super vocabulary for your high IEL score. Your band nine score. Rory.

Rory. Oh, sorry, Maria. I was messaging someone on Instagram. Oh, you're always on social. media, Rory. I know. I know. Shall we talk about social media? Oh, let's talk about social media. What a coincidence, jealous now? Do you like using social media? I mean, I find it useful and efficient, but I wouldn't say I like it. For example, I use telegram and WhatsApp and Facebook for staying in touch with people, but in general, it seems to create this bizarre sense of entitlement where people think that

they should be able to get a hold of you whenever they want to, and I don't really like that part of it at all. When did you start using social media? Well, probably when I was a teenager, and I was using sites like MySpace and MS, well, chat rooms on MSN. But I think I only really became a serious user in the, what, the early 2020s, and that's when I started to use things like Instagram to make social media posts in order to promote things. Do you spend too much time on social media?

Well, I mean, who decides what too much means? There are probably times when I'm on it and I would be better off doing other things, or I could be better off doing other things. But, I mean, rarely am I just sitting there scrolling through reels on Instagram for hours on end or just doom scrolling Twitter. So I suppose it's not as bad as other people. There are times where I can get distracted, but I've got some very forgiving friends, so it's not such a big deal for me. What do you do on social media? The same things as other people, really. I post updates and comment on things I find interesting.

Although I think most of the time I'm just browsing and replying to messages, so I'm probably not as active a user as other people in that regard. We have our super premium episodes for you, where Rory and I are discussing speaking part two and three, and giving you more super grammar and vocabulary. This week on our premium in speaking part two, Rory is describing a useful object in his home. Okay? And in speaking part three, we are talking about gadgets and technology. We are using fresh IOT speaking topics. Do you check them out?

The link is the list. description. Social media, dear listener, we mean Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, WhatsApp, YouTube. All right, whatever you have, these are all like social media platforms. Okay. They are useful and efficient. So they're kind of like efficient. You write a message and it's sent right away.

Okay. And your friend reads it like efficient. Chum, chum, yeah, chop, chop, chop. And we use social media to stay. in touch with friends. So to stay in touch, to stay in contact, to kind of like to talk to them. So stay in touch with my friends, my relatives and random strangers. You stay in touch with random strangers? Well, on social media, you know, it's just like, you don't know this person but kind of

you talk. Oh yeah, there are lots of people like that. It's really weird now. What preposition should we use with WhatsApp or Telegram or Instagram? Well, it's on the internet, so it should be on WhatsApp or on Telegram. Not in. So I stay in touch with my friends on Telegram on WhatsApp on Instagram. What did you mean by bizarre sense of entitlement? Oh, I love that expression.

I'm going to use it more, to be honest with you. So, well, a bizarre sense of entitlement just means it's an unusual feeling or right. people think they have to do something, but it's not really normal. So in the case of social media, people have this bizarre sense of entitlement to your time, where if they send you a message, they expect to respond immediately. This is not all people, but they treat it like it's a conversation that they're having. So because they've sent you a message, they expect one back like you would have in a face-to-face conversation. But that's not how this works, because of course people are busy. and they have things to do

and so they're not able to reply immediately. However, a lot of the time sometimes people message each other and they think they should get this reply which is a very bizarre sense of entitlement. Entitlement is negative, so disapproving. It's the feeling that you have

the right to do or to have something you want without doing any work. It's just like, possessing. Yeah, it's funny though, because as a verb, entitled just means that something you have a right to, for example, like you're entitled to a lawyer in court in many countries. And that's not a negative thing because you're defending yourself. So it's just this idea with the collocation, the bizarre sense of entitlement or just a sense of entitlement or even entitlement. So people on social media feel that they can get a hold of you.

so they can just like reach you at any time during day or night and you have to respond. Okay? Yeah. People can get a hold of you like at any moment. It's very funny, especially when someone contacts you from the other side of the world and they're like, why are you not replying to me? And the answer is usually, well, I'm unconscious because I'm asleep. So it's not always possible. I started using social media last year when I was at school or.

you can say that I used to use chat rooms. Rory mentions stuff like MySpace, MSN, Ola. Do you have MySpace, Maria? No. I think it's a uniquely sort of Western phenomenon, especially in the youth of many millennial people. So, MySpace was just a precursor or something that came before Facebook, and lots of teenagers were on there creating their own profiles and things like that. I became a serious user, like a user of social media. I became a serious user 10 years ago. And I started using like Facebook, Instagram, for example. Or I started posting things on Facebook Instagram.

So started doing something and you post things on Instagram or Facebook. If the examiner asks you a question about do you spend too much time or do you do something too much, you can use Rory's strategy. Rory goes, who decides what too much means? So what does it mean too much? You know, too much for me is a different too much for you, dear listener. And too much for Rory, we don't know, like, how much is too much for Rory. Do you understand?

I understand, but does everyone else understand? That's the key thing. But yeah, too much is a very subjective thing. It's down to your personal experience of the world. I mean, I don't know, people might say that I eat too much meat, for example, but I like to eat meat. So it's not too much for meat. Same thing for social media. And the question is like, do you spend too much time on social media?

And you answered, I'm on it. On it refers to social media, right? So media is it. Or I'm on the app anyway. But the idea is that you're using it. Sometimes I would be better off doing something. else. That's a very nice phrase. So I would be better of studying or I would be better of working or I would be better of doing sports. And why is it doing after the phrase? Because this is super

important, especially if you want to score over a band six on your a alt. I don't know. Goodbye. It's a preposition. So usually when you have the preposition, it's the ING form. Do you not remember this? Oh, really? Yeah. Yeah. Ah, okay. So it's kind of like a, a, I gave up overreting or I took up doing yoga. Okay. But yeah, but not always after propositions, you use ange. Not always, but usually. Very often.

Okay, okay, sweet. Social media could be a distraction. Okay, a popular distraction to get distracted. Okay, from your boredom. When you feel bored, you should get distracted. And you sit there scrolling. dear listener. So you scroll through Instagram

So you just like sit there on your phone doing that. I can't show you this with the phone because I'm youthking at my phone now. Yeah, you just scroll with your finger. Well, your thumb. With your thumb. Yeah, with your or in Russian, your big thumb. Your big finger, sorry. Yeah.

So I just sit there doing something. I just sit there scrolling through reels on Instagram. Or just like I sit there scrolling through Instagram posts. And also, Roy, you said, doom scrolling.

What's doom scrolling? Doom scrolling is a thing, and it's where you sit, usually on Twitter, and you just look through all the bad news and become slowly more and more depressed about how horrible the world is. So yes, doom scrolling is a bad habit,

but just continuing to scroll, binge scrolling possibly, on Instagram. Not a good thing to do. Yeah, actually, doom scrolling is on Cambridge Online Dictionary. So doom scrolling humorous. It's humor, you know. The activity of spending a lot of time looking at your phone, okay, the listener, or computer, or reading bad and negative stories. So doom scrolling for two hours every day won't help you to become happy, for example.

Yeah. But what will would be scrolling through our Instagram, for sure. And you can say that sometimes I keep doom scrolling for hours on end. And hours on end, a long time. I did that once. I was just lying on my bed and I was looking up on my phone like, oh, it's so nice just to look through all the reels on Instagram. And I think I did that for like one hour. I have to say it was the I felt terrible afterwards.

I did not feel productive at all. Could you give us a sentence with those scrolling and hours on end? Well, you can scroll through Instagram for hours on end, but you could also, oh, if you're like, reading, like I could read books for hours on end if I had the time. Or I can play video games for hours on end. And I do. And that's not good. I can watch reels on Instagram for hours on end, like for a long time.

What could you do for hours on end? Pooh. Really? That sounds like a lot of work. Yeah, that's why. Oh, wow, okay. It takes a lot of time as well. You know, like, you buy the ingredients, and then you kind of you look for a recipe, and then kind of you design them.

menu and then you cook and then you eat and then you wash and clean forever Maria's getting very excited about this but when I think about cooking I think oh god how can I make this take the lowest amount of time

possible? People do a lot of things on social media okay so what do you do on social media? Delisca Be social. Yeah I post updates I post pictures I comment on different things.

So comment on things. Okay, I share funny memes. I search for contacts. I look at profiles. Okay. I share and post videos. All right. I discover interesting events, the listener.

All right. Also, I feel my spare time. Just kill the time. And I tackle boredom. So you deal with your boredom on social media. Also, you can say that I watch live streams, when people kind of like talk to you live, live streams. Or I just browse and reply to messages. So you kind of like scroll, yeah, do some doom scrolling and reply to messages.

Maybe not necessarily doom scrolling. Sometimes I just look through Instagram and then I'll see I have a message. You can say I'm an active user or I'm not an active user, so I don't use social media actively, like all the time. Or you say, I'm addicted to, I use social media all the time. I'm addicted to social media. Could you let us know what you do on social media? Just write in the comments, okay?

Oh, Rory, I have my favorite joke. Which social media platform do vegans dislike the most? Google Meat. Google Meat. Sorry, all vegans, really. Come on, it's funny. I'm sorry if you're a vegetarian, but come on, it's funny, yeah? So, vegans dislike Google Meat. Google Meat. Stop it.

Do you like using social media? I mean, I find it useful and efficient, but I wouldn't say I like it. For example, I use Telegram and WhatsApp and Facebook for staying in touch with people. But in general, it seems to create this bizarre sense of entitlement where people think that they should be able to get a hold of you whenever they want to, and I don't really like that part of it at all. When did you start using social media? Well, probably when I was a teenager, and I was using sites like MySpace and

and MS, well, chat rooms on MSN. But I think I only really became a serious user in the, what, the early 2020s? And that's when I started to use things like Instagram to make social media posts in order to promote things. Do you spend too much time on social media? Well, I mean, who decides what too much means? There are probably times when I'm on it and I would be better off doing other things

or I could be better off doing other things. But, I mean, rarely am I just sitting there scrolling through reels on Instagram for hours on end or just doom scrolling Twitter. So I suppose it's not as bad as other people. There are times where I can get distracted, but I've got some very forgiving friends, so it's not such a big deal for me.

What do you do on social media? The same things as other people, really. I post updates and comment on things I find interesting. Although, I think most of the time I'm just browsing and replying to messages, so I'm probably not as active a user as other people in that regard.