General Rules:
Here are some general rules about Part 1 that you may find useful. The point of Task 1 is for you to answer shortly to many questions. Think of it like an interview where you need to answer questions about yourself. You should:
Keep it short. When you practice, in general try to answer in 15 to 20 seconds per question.
Give at least 1 reason and 1 real-life example. Again very general but try to have at least 1 real example in your answer.
Talk about yourself. This part is all related to you (if the question doesn't say another person).
So, lets take a look at some questions:
Vocabulary related to the topic
Sentence starters and Linking words
Idioms or Special Phrases
Do you or your friends like using social media?
Answer 1:
Yes of course. We are all on Facebook, Instagram, and most recently TikTok. It is really fun looking at each other's feeds and trying to be creative with our posts. We share things on social media daily.
My Personal Answer:
Well, everybody in our generation uses social media to an extent. Some use it to catch up with friends, and some to stay informed... (or misinformed)... And some use it for their own business. Either way, we are somewhat forced to be on social media, as everyone else is there and if we choose to ignore it, we will be left out from... well... society.
Answer 1:
My Personal Answer:
Do you think you or your friends use too much social media?
Answer 1:
I guess sometimes. As we are students, we don't have much time to spend online, however... at times, and especially over the weekend, some of us definitely spend way too much time on social media just scrolling and clicking on everyone and everything.
My Personal Answer:
Myself I dont. To be fair, I used to spend a lot of time on Facebook, when I was a teenager. However, I sort of felt where the winds blew at the right time and completely dropped off from the platform. I still visit every now and then to check on some friends, but it's merely once a week for a few minutes. I just know what social media is. What it really is... And I refuse to participate. As for my friends, some have taken the same path as me, and others are still, to this day quite engaged online.
Answer 1:
My Personal Answer:
Do you want to work in social media? Why?
Answer 1:
Nowadays, there are many professions that need to use social media, or at least have some understanding of how it functions. For instance, Facebook is used widely for the sales and promotion of products and services. This means that every company, no matter what they do, will need to engage with its social media and do marketing. So, yes, I guess I will need to work on that at some point in my life.
My Personal Answer:
To be honest, social media and how it has developed has left such a bad taste in my mouth, that there is this force inside me that refuses to touch anything related to social media. However, I can't escape the reality, and that is that social media is an effective sales tool. I have my own business and run my own educational website, and I simply need to use social media to promote my content and gather followers, or clients. It is inevitable and so I have to use it to my advantage. I wouldn't work for any of those companies though.
Answer 1:
My Personal Answer:
What is the most popular social media in your country? Why?
Answer 1:
For China as I live here at the moment.
The most popular social media in my country is the mobile phone app WeChat. WeChat is an amazing mega app, and even though it is a chatting and social media app, it has so many other functions like - mobile payment, shopping, video platform, hotel booking, cinema ticket purchase, and the list goes on and on. It is the most efficient and effective app in the world.
My Personal Answer:
I dont follow social media that much and I don't know which apps are currently on the top, but if I had to guess, It would have to be Facebook, Instagram, and perhaps TikTok, in that order. I know that a lot of people have reduced their use of Facebook these days, however, it is still the best tool to get in touch with friends or family. There's simply nothing else out there that allows the same sort of ecosystem. Instagram and TikTok are for the youth, and even there you can't really post your thoughts and ideas, but rather it's more about a flashy show, showing off your food or your filtered appearance.
Answer 1:
My Personal Answer:
What advantages does social media bring?
Answer 1:
In my opinion, social media gives us the ability to communicate with many people, in some cases from all over the world. But even more importantly, we can keep in touch with our closest friends and relatives. I think, in the past families definitely missed this type of bond, where now they can create a whole family group and post all sorts of information about each other's adventures, daily life, health, thoughts, and funny moments from their day.
My Personal Answer:
Social media definitely has its upsides. I think the best (and sometimes the worst) aspect of those is that we can receive instant information about happenings. We can catch up on some gossip, get notified if there is a storm or a typhoon coming, follow celebrities or companies, engage with local events, and in a way, know much more than we are supposed to about everything going on around us. It is useful, but sometimes overwhelming, as the bombardment of information can make us dizzy if we followed everything every day all at once.
Answer 1:
My Personal Answer:
What are some of the disadvantages of social media?
Answer 1:
I think it has to be using it too much. Many young people get addicted to social media. They spend all their day clicking or scrolling through endless pages. Recently, with the appearance of TikTok, it became even worse, as now they can watch videos all day long. What's more, many people pretend to be each other's friends when in fact they don't know anything about each other. Our closest friends are still the people we meet in real life.
My Personal Answer:
I think the problem with social media stems from two points - freedom of speech and the amount of information. Let me explain. As everyone has access to social media (Facebook says it has 3 billion users), there are many people writing and writing all sorts of articles. Some of them are health-related, some are investment and business related, and so on. As there are billions of users, they can write whatever they want without any restriction so they can lie, omit, misrepresent, mislead, and much more. It just makes sense that everything is somewhat faked. Further, as those millions or billions of people publish stuff, we get overwhelmed with information and lose trust in everything altogether. Information is good, but too much information is definitely negative for a human being.
Answer 1:
My Personal Answer: