For #1 - Bad for mental health

Highlight reel. Meaning: a short video or photo that is designed for entertainment, often showing the highlights (= the most interesting or exciting parts) of something. For example, highlight reels of your friends' holidays often give a misleading impression of what they were really like.

Entirety. Meaning: the whole of something. For example, the poem is too long to quote in its entirety.

Subconsciously. Meaning: as a result of feelings that influence your behaviour even though you are not aware of them. For example, subconsciously, she was looking for the father she had never known.

Detrimental. Meaning: harmful. For example, the policy will be detrimental to the peace process.

Perpetuate. Meaning: to make something such as a bad situation, a belief, etc. continue for a long time. For example, he perpetuated the lie by speaking about it on a podcast.

Against #1 - Keep connected with friends

Stay in touch. Meaning: to communicate or continue to communicate with someone by using a phone or writing to them. For example, Are you still in touch with any of your old school friends?

Acquaintance. Meaning: a person that you know but who is not a close friend. For example, Claire has a wide circle of friends and acquaintances.

Up to. Meaning: to be doing something. For example, what are you up to tomorrow?

Grow apart. Meaning: to stop having a close relationship with somebody over a period of time. For example, as we got older we just grew apart.

Stranger. Meaning: a person that you do not know. For example, there was a complete stranger sitting at my desk.

For #2 - Waste of time

Validation. Meaning: the feeling that others recognise that you are right or good enough. For example, we seek validation from our peers.

Consciously. Meaning: in a way that is deliberate or careful. For example, consciously or unconsciously, you made a choice.

Surface level. Meaning: shallow, lacking depth. For example, if my friendship with someone isn't very deep or involved, I might say we have a surface level relationship.

Deliberate. Meaning:done on purpose rather than by accident. For example, the speech was a deliberate attempt to embarrass the government.

Nonsense. Meaning: ideas, statements or beliefs that you think are silly or not true. For example, you're talking nonsense!

Against #2 - Keep up to date with cultural events

Externally. Meaning: in a way that happens or comes from outside a place, an organisation, a particular situation, etc. For example, the university has many externally funded research projects.

Contemporary. Meaning: belonging to the present time. For example, the film paints a depressing picture of life in contemporary Britain.

Transcript

[00:00:00] Hello and welcome to Debates in English, a weekly English lesson for upper intermediate and advanced English learners interested in political and societal subjects. I'm your host Sam, an experienced English teacher who has spent thousands of hours in the classroom helping hundreds of students improve their fluency.

[00:00:21] This lesson series combines my expertise gained from my master's degree in politics with my passion for teaching English. Each week you will expand your vocabulary at the B2 C1 level and improve your listening skills by exploring the pros and cons of a controversial topic. I recommend downloading the free document in the description, which has a transcript of the lesson with all the key vocabulary highlighted and further reading materials.

[00:00:52] So usually I script these episodes and I write down everything that I'm going to say, but this week I've been a little bit lazy and I haven't done that. So today I'm going to have to record an episode without too much planning. And without a script. So, we'll see what happens. So the first reason why I think you should delete social media is because it can be bad for your mental health.

[00:01:15] The key vocabulary to listen out for is highlights reel, meaning a short video or photo. That is designed for entertainment, often showing the highlights, the most interesting or exciting parts of something. For example, highlight reels of your friend's holidays often give a misleading impression of what they were really like.

[00:01:39] Entirety. Meaning, the whole of something. For example, the poem is too long to quote in its entirety. Subconsciously. Meaning, as a result of feelings that influence your behaviour even though you are not aware of them. For example, subconsciously, she was looking for the father she had never known.

[00:02:04] Detrimental. Meaning, harmful. For example, the policy will be detrimental to the peace process. Perpetuate, meaning to make something such as a bad situation, a belief, etc. continue for a long time. For example, he perpetuated the lie by speaking about it on a podcast. So when we're using social media apps like Instagram, for example, we get to see the of everyone else's life.

[00:02:37] These photos are very small pieces of people's lives, and they don't, do not show the entire thing. You, now, when you're using Instagram, have to compare that small, percentage of someone's life to the entirety of your life. So you know 100 percent of the things about yourself. You know, all your bad moments, you know, all your good moments, you know, all your lazy moments, you know, all your pathetic moments.

[00:03:08] And that's okay. You know, we're human. We're not all perfect. But you don't see that about everyone else's life. But on social media, especially Instagram, for example, you get to see a tiny bit of their life. And it's always the best moments. People don't upload, well, people usually don't upload pictures or videos of their bad moments.

[00:03:33] Or, you know, anything that isn't their best moments, really. It's usually celebratory posts. They're celebrating something. Maybe they've gone to a wedding. Maybe they've got a promotion at work. Maybe they've got a new car or a new house, something like this. So you are, you are subconsciously comparing your life to a highlight reel of other people's.

[00:03:58] And I think even if you know this to be the case, so even if you know This is happening. I think it happens anyway. It happens subconsciously. It's happening automatically. And while this can happen for people's lives, so you can compare your life to other people's life, I think this can be really detrimental for people when we do it about our appearance and our looks.

[00:04:24] So if you, the same with, you know, your life, you get to see yourself in the mirror up close in your really ugly moments. You get to see what you wake up, what you look like first thing when you wake up when you know you're ill or something like this. And you look in the mirror and you're like, Oh God, I look bad today.

[00:04:44] And then you go on social media apps like Instagram, and you are able to see models, you know, actresses, actors, musicians even normal people, but these are their best photos. They're probably, there's probably like 30 photos taken of this specific event, and they've chosen the best one. And maybe they're edited, maybe the girls are wearing makeup, maybe the boys are wearing makeup, who knows?

[00:05:12] And sometimes people use filters and a lot of the time it can happen where a lot of the time people compare what they look like on a day to day basis. With these unrealistic beauty standards, which are perpetuated through the use of filters and editing. And we're not supposed to see good looking people all the time.

[00:05:34] If we went back before the internet and people lived in towns, you would just see the people that you saw every day. And that's what your kind of basis of what normal looks like. But when we have access to all these beautiful people on the internet, You start to think that's what normal looks like. And that's what it's what you're expected to look like.

[00:05:56] And I think the same comparison thing can happen here. So people compare themselves with other people subconsciously, even if they know this is unrealistic. This is not natural. This is not normal. I think it happens subconsciously and this can have negative effects on people and it can lower your self esteem.

[00:06:14] So that's a reason why I think you could delete social media. One reason why you shouldn't delete social media. is, it's a good way to stay in touch with your friends. The key vocabulary to listen out for is stay in touch, meaning to communicate or continue to communicate with someone by using a phone or writing to them.

[00:06:35] For example, are you still in touch with any of your old school friends? Acquaintance, meaning a person that you know who is not a close friend. For example, Claire has a wide circle of friends and acquaintances. Up to, meaning to be doing something. For example, what are you up to tomorrow? Grow apart.

[00:06:59] Meaning, to stop having a close relationship with somebody over a period of time. For example, as we got older, we just grew apart. Stranger, meaning a person that you do not know, for example, there was a complete stranger sitting at my desk. I don't text that many people a lot of the time. I have a few group chats that I I'm in, that I, that, you know, I speak to people every day, speak to my family quite often.

[00:07:28] I see my girlfriend every day because I live with her, but some people who I'm friends with, I don't really communicate with them that often, maybe because they live in a different city than me, maybe they live in a different country than me, but I don't text them that regularly. Maybe we have a phone call once every few months, for example, but I'm still interested about them and their lives.

[00:07:52] And because we don't communicate that often, connecting to people on social media is a really good way to stay in touch and just to have general updates about what's going on. People's lives that you care about. Maybe it's not the best thing to have updates about people you don't really care about, or maybe celebrities.

[00:08:12] Do you need daily updates of what they're doing? Maybe not, unless you're a real big fan, but with people who are acquaintances or friends that aren't that close, but you're, you still like, and you still care about, then it's a good way to see what they're up to. And sometimes if they post something, you can reply to that and you can have a quick conversation.

[00:08:34] And you're still building that relationship when you, when you don't have social media, sometimes you don't see people or you don't speak to people for months, like they care about due to location. Most of the time, if they lived in where you live. Maybe a little bit different, but not all of us live in the same place as all of our friends and the people who care about.

[00:08:57] So it's easy to kind of lose touch and to grow apart from people just because you don't have that frequent interaction. So I think social media, even though it can have some negatives, is a real simple way of just staying in touch with people. You don't even need to post that often. You can just wait until other people post, and then maybe you see something that you can apply to.

[00:09:21] You don't even need to post that much yourself. So it's very simple way just to keep in touch with people that you care about. I deleted Instagram for a very long time. Well, I actually deactivated it rather than deleted it. And I felt like I did grow apart from a lot of people who I didn't see on a regular basis, and I didn't know what they were up to, which was a shame really, because I like those people.

[00:09:47] And I care about them and it, it meant that when I did see them, I, maybe there was more to talk about, but I felt like I had lost that kind of connection because there wasn't really, it just felt like we became strangers almost, that this was a person from the past. Rather than the person from the present because they're not in my life on a, you know, weekly basis, monthly basis.

[00:10:14] And I don't maybe think about this person that much, but you know, it's so nice to get updates from them. And this is the modern web, you know, people used to write letters to each other. Now people don't do that. They just upload tweets or photographs or stories or something like this. So it's the modern way of keeping in touch and you can build a network of great people, friends, people that you care about, and you can have that kind of network All over the world.

[00:10:41] And it's a good way for you to also update other people because it's, it will take a very long time that the process of writing to every single person or sending a photo to every single person you care about with that you think would care about your life updates would take ages. So why not just upload a picture to Instagram, write a tweet, and then everyone can see what you're up to that you care about.

[00:11:05] You could have a private account. You could, you know, block random people from seeing your stuff, but it's a great way to show people what you're up to and also see what other people are up to. What's not to like? The second reason why you should delete social media is it's a huge waste of time. The key vocabulary to listen out for is validation, meaning the feeling that others recognize that you are right or good enough.

[00:11:30] For example, we seek validation from our peers consciously, meaning in a way that is deliberate or careful. For example, Consciously or unconsciously, you made a choice. Surface level, meaning shallow, lacking depth. For example, if my friendship with someone isn't very deep or involved, I might say we have a surface level relationship.

[00:11:56] Deliberate, meaning done on purpose rather than by accident. For example, the speech was a deliberate attempt to embarrass the government. Nonsense, meaning ideas, statements, or beliefs that you think are silly or not true. For example, you are talking nonsense. I think it can be beneficial to stay up to date with people's lives, but how often really are people uploading things on social media that actually matter?

[00:12:30] You know, if it was really that important, they would text you or you'd see them in person and they would say something like, I got a new job, something like this, most of the time on social media. It's stupid pictures. It's someone, you know, uploading the meal that they ate at a restaurant. I don't really care about that unless it looks, you know, ridiculously delicious and it's somewhere I can go to myself.

[00:12:54] If it's like a, if it's a restaurant in Greece and I'm in Manchester, it's no good for me. I get to see a picture of a pizza or whatever and I'm like, okay, that looks like a nice pizza. That information has done, you know, nothing for me apart from it might make me hungry, but who knows? But yeah, a lot of the time the posts on social media are, I'm thinking Instagram mostly, are just stupid and pointless.

[00:13:21] They don't add anything. Their people, most of the time, just looking for validation. They, you know, they want to upload a picture of themselves, so people can You know, show interest. Oh, you look good in this photo because it makes them feel better. I've done it. Everyone does it. They don't do it consciously.

[00:13:39] It probably happens because they feel bad about themselves sometimes. Sometimes it's fun. You know, I'm not saying every post is looking for validation. Sometimes it's harmless and it's fun and it's not as serious as that. But a lot of the time the stuff on social media It's just surface level rubbish.

[00:14:01] It's, it's nothing you could quite easily go 24 hours a week, a month without seeing anything on social media. And, you know, if you asked someone, okay, tell me three posts or pictures that you saw on social media in the last week that added value to your life. Most people probably wouldn't be able to say anything apart from, I saw a reel or a TikTok and it was pretty funny.

[00:14:27] That's nice. I enjoy funny things. I, enjoy Twitter or X because of the funny things on there. I enjoy some reels or TikTok because I don't use TikTok. I feel like I'm too old, but Instagram reels because yeah, they're funny. They relate to me, but most of the time it's a waste of time. And if you don't, if you're not in a position in your life that you're not happy with.

[00:14:49] And maybe you can do something more productive or something more valuable or just kind of deeper. Like reading a book is so much better use of time and relaxing than scrolling on social media. And it also kills your attention span if you're just on TikTok all day. Your attention span is going to be zero.

[00:15:09] If you're reading books, you can concentrate for a long time. So I just feel like if you can use Instagram or social media in a very limited and purposeful and deliberate way. So you're, you're literally going, okay, I'm going on my Instagram app for 10 minutes just today. And I'll just see the photos from my friends.

[00:15:34] That's fair enough. But a lot of people, they spend way too many hours each day on it, and it doesn't really give them anything positive. So, I just feel like, of all the things you could be doing in the world, Literally anything taking a walk, I think even playing video games is a better use of time.

[00:15:51] Painting, exercising, creating something, seeing your friends, socialising, hugging your mum. Literally anything is better than just wasting your time just scrolling on your phone. It's so boring, but it's useful because when you get back from work or school or university and you're tired, you You need something that stimulates your brain, but also relaxes your body.

[00:16:17] Like you're not using too much physical energy, but your brain is stimulated, which you can do through a book or watching TV, which I think is definitely better than social media, unless you're doing something really interesting or seeing, you know, cool photos or reading some interesting tweets, but most of the time, it's nonsense.

[00:16:35] The second reason why you shouldn't delete social media is it's a good way to stay up to date with cultural things happening. The key vocabulary to listen out for is externally, meaning in a way that happens or comes from outside a place, an organisation, a particular situation, etc. For example, the university has many externally funded research projects.

[00:17:00] Contemporary, meaning belonging to the present time. For example, the film paints a depressing picture of life in contemporary Britain. So if you are on TikTok or Instagram or Twitter, you literally get updates about things that are happening with the interests that you like. So you might, if you're into running, you may see this, you make it advertised, or you may see this kind of event that's happening in your local area that you wouldn't see if you weren't interested.

[00:17:29] If you weren't on social media, if you are on Twitter, you might receive your news from that, or even Instagram and you might get your news from certain social media outlets. So you're staying up to date, not only with your friends, what's happening around the world. This is literally like, imagine social media is like an online social events.

[00:17:51] That's why it's called social media because it involves people and people are being sociable. So when you're home and you're alone and you're reading a book and, or you're watching TV or you're not using social media, what social media whatsoever, you are a little bit disconnected with what's happening externally.

[00:18:14] And you may still see your friends. You may text them. But you're kind of relying on them to give you information that you can only get from limited sources. So, especially with like current contemporary things. Sure, you can read some great Penguin classic books and you might be spending your time in a better way because you're kind of delving into a deep novel.

[00:18:43] Sure. That's great. But how are you going to find out about a festival happening, you know, next week where you're living if you're not using the internet for in these social realms of activity? So it's like a big party, essentially, if you can look at it. It's just like, a marketplace or a party or some place where people physically gather and everyone's there posting things that you may like.

[00:19:12] And because of the algorithm love it or hate it, it learns more about you and what you like. So my, Social media pages will be very different from yours because we are different people and we have different interests. So, it's a good way just to stay up to date with news, what's happening locally kind of things that you're interested in.

[00:19:35] Where else are you really going to get that information apart from relying on other people? You can't you're not gonna, I can't actually think of another way. Yeah, you have to keep social media if you want to keep up to date with trends and what's happening. Finished. That's it. So that was a little bit of a different format than usual.

[00:19:58] If you prefer this format where I'm speaking a little bit more freely and naturally. Let me know in the comments. If not, I will return back to my scripted videos because I think it's a better way to introduce deliberate vocabulary, but this way also has its advantages because this is how people actually speak.

[00:20:19] The previous videos that you may have seen are deliberately scripted. People aren't that accurate and precise with their language when they're speaking English or any language unless you're an incredibly eloquent speaker. But, this is how I speak, this is how people normally speak, and if you're trying to learn English or any language, Then it may be better just to listen to natural conversations rather than scripted conversations.

[00:20:51] Who knows, but yeah, let me know what you think. That is the debate everyone. Let me know in the comments what your opinion is on this subject. Which argument do you think is the strongest? Thanks for watching and see you next week for the next debate.