In this lesson we will be reading about social media. We focus on improving our reading skills and vocabulary by reading out loud and learning some new words.
Let’s Get Started!
Social Media is Stealing Our Time
Social media has really taken over the world. It seems like everything and everyone is online all the time.
Even businesses have to use social media to keep up with what their customers want. It’s also a great way for small businesses to advertise without spending a lot of money on television, radio or billboard ads.
A lot of the time customers also use social media to express dissatisfaction with companies. This can be very harmful to a business because news spreads very fast online. One unhappy customer’s post or comment on social media can cause a business to loose their other customers. Many people these days check reviews and comments left by other customers online before they decide whether or not to trust or use this company.
According to statistics there are over 3 billion active social media users today. It is estimated that the average person spends about 2 hours 22 minutes on social media daily.
The country with the longest daily social media use was the Philippines. There the average time spent by a person on social networks daily is about 3 hours 57 minutes. Brazilians were the second highest with 3 hours and 37 minutes of social media on average daily. The lowest country is Japan, with only 48 minutes of social media time every day.
So much time on social media everyday takes away from time we could be spending on other important things in life. Even though social media is meant to connect people, it causes a lot of people to become disconnected from the people around them.
Have you ever been in a room with friends or family, everyone is quiet and scrolling through their phones. This imagine is way too common. We should rename ‘social media’ to ‘anti-social media’ because it make people more antisocial than anything.
Social media also takes time away from healthier activities like exercise. Sometime I watch YouTube videos of other people exercising and all I do is comment ‘great job, feeling motivated’. This doesn’t actually make me feel that motivated at all because I start comparing my body to other great bodies on social media. Now I don’t even feel like exercising anymore.
This can also work the other way around if you use social media in a healthy way. If you like watching people exercise online, then a great way to join in is to follow along. Follow the person in the video and do the exercise with them. This way you are using your time on social media wisely.
Social media is definitely not all bad and it can be used for health, fitness, financial, mental, academic, professional, social and personal improvement if you following the right people.
We can also enjoy entertainment on social media but we must be careful about losing all our time on it. Time is precious and we should be wise about how we use it.
Let’s answer some questions on this topic!
Is social media a good tool for companies to use to gain more information on how to better their service to their customers? Why?
How has social media contributed positively to the world. Give 3 examples and explain.
What are the negative impacts of social media on society?
How much time on average do Filipinos and Brazilians spend a day on social media?
Can you imagine a world without social media? How do you think people would be spending their time if social media did not exist?
We know you learned a lot in this lesson. So remember to practice your reading a vocabulary at least 3 times.
If you want to practice more English, check out these other lessons below!
A Couple of kays 