📙 Part 2: Describe an app (application) you use on your mobile phone

This episode's vocabulary

Social media (uncountable or plural noun)  websites and computer programs that allow people to communicate and share information on the internet using a computer or mobile phone.

Feed (noun) - a web page, screen, etc. that updates (= changes) often to show the latest information.

To scroll (verb) - to move text or other information on a computer screen in order to see a different part of it.

To follow (verb) - if you follow a particular person on a social media website (= a website where people can publish their thoughts, photographs, information about themselves etc.), you choose to see everything that person posts (= publishes) on the website.

Hook up something (phrasal verb) - to connect something, usually to a system or to a piece of equipment.

Profile (noun) - information about a person's life, work, interests, etc. on a social networking website.

To post (verb) - to publish something such as a message or picture on a website or using social media.

Content (noun) - information, images, video, etc. that are included as part of something such as a website.

Up to date (adj.) - modern, recent, or containing the latest information.

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Questions and Answers

M: Rory, are you all ready to give it to us?

R: Yep.

M: Bring it on.

R: Well, I'm forever on Instagram. So I suppose I'll speak about that. That's a popular phone app for social media site based around a feed of images that you can scroll through once you follow enough people who post various photographs or videos, other sorts of, well, visual media for lack of a better term. The following is just an action that hooks up your profile and feed into someone else's. So you can see when they share or post content, and it's constantly updated. So you never really get bored provided your following a sizable enough number of people. Which I do, I think it's about 250, or something like that. Aside from that, there are also functions to post stories, which last for around 15 seconds. I should say, story sounds like it's text-based, but actually, they can be pictures or short clips that you just take with your phone camera, and then you upload them. You can add text and various other effects like connected to augmented reality, that makes them a bit more interesting. Recently, they also added something called Reels, though I'm not actually sure what the point of those is, to be honest with you. I think they're just slightly longer versions of stories and videos that are just on a constant feed so that you can scroll through those as well. And of course, you can message other people privately, and comment on their content, and like it. Just the same as you would anywhere else. I don't think there's an option to dislike it. Although people sometimes post comments saying use this comment as a dislike button. And people do that. In terms of advantages, I find it's good for advertising and for finding out what other people are up to. And that's quite crucial, because I'm very interested in content for the podcast and following people in my field and being kept up to date about what's going on. So if I didn't have this, I feel like I would be less informed than I should be. And that would definitely not be a good thing.

M: What about your friends? Do they use this app?

R: Oh, I think just about all of them do but to varying degrees.

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