Listening

Warm Up

Helpful Words and Phrases

Listen and repeat.

  1. mindless
    • ex. Eating snacks while watching TV can become a mindless habit.
  2. combat
    • ex. We need to combat pollution to protect the environment.
  3. an intervention
    • ex. The teacher’s advice was an important intervention to help the student focus on studying.
  4. addicted
    • ex. Children can become addicted to video games if they play too often.
  5. addiction
    • ex. His video game addiction is getting more serious as he continues to play for many hours every day.

Article

Read the article below and answer your tutor's questions.

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Doomscrolling can happen to many people. Social media users usually start with a short break, but mindless scrolling can take up their time. What seems like 10 minutes can easily turn into an hour or more before they even notice.

Olivia Yokubonis is an online influencer who makes short videos to combat the overuse of social media. Her calm videos act as a gentle intervention, reminding people that they may have been spending too much time on social media or apps. Yokubonis works for a company whose goal is to help social media users “reclaim their focus.” Many people like her message, though some do not.

Meanwhile, there are some social media users who believe they are addicted to it, but some studies prove that this is not always true. For example, Ian A. Anderson, a scholar at the California Institute of Technology, studied a small group of active Instagram users. While 18% of people agreed that they were a little addicted to Instagram, only 2% showed signs of social media addiction. Still, Anderson thinks they should make small changes to stop unhealthy screen habits.

This material was based on an article by The Associated Press.

Discussion

Choose a topic and discuss the questions with your tutor.

Time Spent on Social Media

  • Some people feel they spend too much time on social media. Do you think you spend too much time on social media? Why or why not? Discuss.
  • In your country, what social media app do you think people spend the most time on? Discuss.
  • Imagine you cannot spend a lot of your time using social media. What would you do instead? Discuss.

Social Media Influencers

  • Some influencers, like Olivia Yokubonis, make videos to help people spend less time on social media. What do you think about these influencers? Discuss.
  • Do you have a favorite social media influencer? Why or why not? Discuss.
  • Imagine you could become a social media influencer. How would you use your social media account (ex. help people, entertain people)? Discuss.