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Social Media Trap

Nov 18, 2018Canadian, English, Life&Food, Science&Tech

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Preparation
CONSIDER

Do you spend too much time on social media?

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Transcript

José Cruz: Um (Of course) do you do anything on social media?

Niall Plumb: Um, OK so I have tumblr I have Instagram, I have facebook.

José: Holy cow. Ha ha. Twitter? 

Niall: I don’t have twitter.

José: You don’t have twitter?

Niall: I don’t have twitter.

José: OK what else you got?

Niall: I don’t know. WhatsApp doesn’t count really, does it? WhatsApp is just a messaging…

José: It’s a messenger app, but that’s that’s the kind of thing about you know um uh social media. Like LINE was a messaging app (Right) then it became a- a voice messaging app then it (Right right right) became a phone app, and now it’s trying to develop itself into it’s own social media…

Niall: Right I mean I guess these things are evolving because like especially with the whole, you know- Do you have Instagram? Or are you familiar with instagram?

José: I have it but I don’t use it.

Niall: So you know you can do the whole story thing. (Right) Everybody is doing the whole story thing now. (Yeah more Mm) And now can do that on What’sApp. which I just find- I find it’s such a strange adulteration of what What’sApp was, but like I guess (I don’t see) It makes sense from their perspective (Yeah) that they want to have all of the features like the- like sites that are very successful have you know.

José: I don’t see how snapchat came to be as ubiquitous as it is. First it was just you know um this this…

Niall: I have such a problem with that.

José: Why what happened?

Niall: No not like a problem. But I just- (Oh) Oh it infuriates me so much. It’s like, first I just- OK yeah- You can take a picture of yourself and it’s short and it’s snappy and you can do whatever and you just send it to people. (Yeah) And now it’s like, “Oh yeah! Like we’re going to show you this new station. We’re going to show you what’s going on at the Victo- toria’s secret show. We’re going to show-” I’m like, I don’t- I don’t want to see all of that stuff. Like don’t (Ha ha) bombard me with all of this useless trash! I’m like- ah I don’t know.

José: Which one do you use the most?

Niall: Oh. I guess instagram. Instagram is such a trap.

José: Ha ha. Wait a minute! You use it the most and now you’re going to disa slang word meaning to “insult” or “DISrespect” (1:47) it?

Niall: It’s it’s such a trap. No I- Actually I really hate social media. Like I feel as though it takes up (Ha ha) so much of my- I’m serious. This is why I wanted to talk about it before. It- I feel like it just consumes so much of my my energy and I could just be using it on other things.

José: OK then I’ve just got to ask, why do you bother with it? (Because) It’s- you you’re dissing it right now, but you’re still using it.

Niall: Well I mean the thing about it is is like- with regards to uh interconnectivity (Mm hmm) You can talk to so many people at at once and you can talk with people who all over the world and you can see what your friends are doing all over the world (Mm hmm) But then on a micro-scale is when I don’t like it, (OK) because it’s like, I’m (Right) just with my friends having a dinner and then peo- I have people like (Oh) trying to take pictures of their food. I’m like, can you not just eat it? Does it make sense? It doesn’t make sense to me. It’s like you’re going to post that to everybody, but I’m sitting right here in front of you and like I’m- I know what we ate. You know.

José: That that that I don’t even know what to say without swearing when I see (Ha ha) people sitting around, like I mean here at the university- people sitting around and there are four friends (Mm hmm) all of them each and every one of them spend more time looking at their phones than they do looking at each other. And and maybe I’m turning into an old man that way, but to see four people who could be verbally communicating and having (Uh huh) emotional responses and emotional experiences- maybe not right at that table, but they would rather be staring into a phone.

Niall: Yeah see I don’t- I- it really upsets me. I mean I-I feel like one day I’m going to have this existence where I’m just- isolate myself from society, but then I feel like at the same time society is like, it’s incre- becoming increasingly difficult to have this concept of isolation- I feel like at some point we’re going to get this technology that really locks you in and it’s like if you don’t have it then you actually have like a really- like your quality of life or the way that you live is going to be…

José: You be- you become part of the people who have a problem. (Yeah exactly) Right.

Consolidation
DISCUSSION

What is your favourite social media app?

Do you think social media will ever go away?

Note how often NIall, uses the word “like” as a filler word. Many native English teachers would say he uses it too much, but on the other hand it helps him maintain a good fluency rate.

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Speakers

José Domingo Cruz image

José Domingo Cruz

Canadian

Vancouver, British Columbia

Speaker Niall  Plumb Image

Niall Plumb

English

London, England


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7 Comments

  1. I am the person who does not use social media very much. As I am a person playing a game, mostly I use social media to confirm the information related to such a thing and contact a friend to play a game together. And when I contact a family, I use it too. Therefore I couldn’t sympathize with the social media trap that I took up by this article. And, again, I am a person who don’t communicate much in face to face. So I have not sensed that I spent much time on looking at the smartphone than time when looking at each other very much. However, I agree to taking the communication with an emotional responses if I actually see. However, the situation of these days felt in the situation that isolate from the society as Mr. Niall said in this article. During this period, I thinks more than before that a connection on the Internet becomes strong even if such a tendency remains in the future society. Internet environment have become very useful in such a situation, but I hope become can be verbally communicating and having emotional responses, Mr. Cruz said, in the society where this situation has ended.

    Reply
  2. I read “Social Media Trap”. There is a reason I read this article. The reason is, in recent years Social Media is spread in the world. I am interested Social Media or SNS. As Social Media, there are Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Now, I use Twitter and Instagram. It is fun. But, I think Social Media has dangerous points. It has two points.
    First, Social Media may leak personal information. We often register the account my full name. We don’t use nickname. Also, we post photo in Social Media. For example, taking photo with friends and food photo. In recent years, technique develop. So, others may be able to identify the location from the photos we take. It leads to the identification of personal information.
    Second, we sometimes overuse Social Media. We often check Social Media. According to the article, university people spend more time looking at their phones than they do looking at each other. We shouldn’t spend using a phone. We should spend talking with friends or doing other things.
    I think that when we use Social Media we have to be careful how we use them. I want to be careful about personal information and use it while valuing the relationship with people.

    Reply
  3. I use some social media. I use LINE and Twitter on APP of social media. It is but, I think about I don’t make the most use of something this social media. I don’t use LINE for the most part. I use Twitter for watch other people’s Twitter. Many people sending their hobby and act by social media. I don’t use Twitter for mutter tool. It is hard for me to use those social media. Social media has some pleasure and some problem. For example, I can know restaurants that some delicious dishes provide by those restaurants taken picture. Some enterprise uses social media for their advertise. Some people become famous because of social media influence. It is but, I can know someone lives area and address by someone taken picture. This fact may be used by some people. Sometimes happen that we make trouble social media with friends. It is useful and fun for many people to use social media. It is but, it is very hard to treat social media. I think that people use social media for fun and to keep the rules and basis. I think about I want to use social media to be moderate. It is important to use social media safety.

    Reply
  4. Social media is very convenient. Many people use it all over the world. Especially, young people use their smartphones for a long time. I think that social media is so useful. We can always contact with our family and friends easily. Now I can’t go far away for the corona virus so it is very important to contact by social media. However, I think that using smartphones for a long time is bad for people. It is said that many people become addicted to smartphones. I often see people using their smartphones when they walk the streets and ride bicycles. It is dangerous because they may have accidents. I think that people should think about how to use smartphones. Moreover, we can look a lot of article on social media. Also, there is the false news. It is very convenient for us to get a lot of information but we have to be careful of the false news. Recently, I looked many false news for corona virus on twitter. For example, people can’t get a toilet paper and a tissue. It is the false news but many people believed the news. Therefor people bought paper products and their goods disappeared at many stores. People need them had trouble.
    In this way, smartphones are very convenient but we should take care of using them. If we can use them properly, they are useful for us.

    Reply
  5. I’m very careful about how I use social media.
    My parents bought me a smartphone when I was in seventh grade.
    I kept checking the line all the time when I got home.
    Because of this, I couldn’t concentrate on my studies and my grades weren’t very good.
    So I decided to set a time to use it and not open it during the test days.
    I also decided not to make comments that were inappropriate, as attacking individuals would affect my future life.
    As for Instagram, I’m thinking about what I’m going to do depending on who I’m dealing with, because I’m going to want to take pictures immediately.
    Many women want to take pictures, and some are sad when they don’t upload pictures of their outings.
    Many men think it’s a waste of time to take pictures, so I don’t take a lot of pictures.

    In addition, many people are now grieved by the use of social media to slander them.
    You should use social media depending on how you use it and the occasion and the person.
    Some people have poor relationships, become psychotic, or commit suicide.
    you are talking to.

    Reply
  6. The deeper SNS connect our life, the more SNS’s problems happen. For example, He bully him, they spread groundless rumors. But I also use SNS because SNS is useful for gathering information. When I gather information, I am careful about that the information has ground and evidence. I am also careful about that I contribute something because the contribution may hurt someone.

    Reply
  7. I use anonymous SNS more than other SNS. So I am careful about these things more. I don’t like the kind of SNS they are not anonymous much because the SNS has a bondage. SNS has many problems but SNS also has good things. For example, people connect many people who have various hobby, principle and opinion and people know their friends situation. SNS is more connect our life so we have to think how to use SNS.

    Reply

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