📘 Part 3: Apps

This episode's vocabulary

reliant on (adj) – dependent on someone or something. → Young people are more and more reliant on computer programs and apps.

adept at (adj) – having a natural ability to do something that needs skill. → They seem more adept at using them.

repercussions (n) – the negative consequences of an action or event. → Some kids can just sit and play games with no repercussions.

cut someone off (phrasal verb) – to stop providing something to someone. → Parents could just cut them off completely from games.

unsustainable (adj) – not able to be continued at the same level. → Cutting them off completely might be a bit extreme and unsustainable.

practical (adj) – relating to actual experience or action rather than ideas. → Agreeing on specific times for games would be more practical.

ubiquitous (adj) – seeming to be everywhere. → Things connected to work, like email and calendar planners, seem just about ubiquitous.

essential (adj) – absolutely necessary or extremely important. → These apps are popular because people consider them essential.

intrusive (adj) – causing disruption or annoyance through being unwelcome. → App notifications can be pretty intrusive at times.

discerning (adj) – having or showing good judgment. → I can see old people being more discerning about what they put on social media.

carefree (adj) – free from anxiety or responsibility. → Youngsters are probably a bit more carefree.

first and foremost (idiom) – most importantly; more than anything else. → I think that's the first and foremost drawback.

Questions and Answers

Maria: Do you think young people are more and more reliant on computer programs and apps?

Rory: Well, they certainly have more access to them and seem more adept at using them, but I don't think it's just young people who need them. I mean, old people definitely benefit from using them. And if they don't, they frequently get young people to help them with that kind of thing.

Maria: Should parents limit their children's use of computer programs and computer games?

Rory: I really don't know. I mean, surely that depends on whether it's bad for them or not. And some kids can just sit and play games with no repercussions. So if that's the case, then I don't see the need.

Maria: And why could it be a good idea to limit their time?

Rory: I suppose if playing video games is limiting their opportunities to develop or have a happy and healthy life, then well, they could just cut them off completely. And that might be a bit extreme and unsustainable though. So maybe agreeing times when children can and cannot play them would be more practical.

Maria: What apps are popular in your country?

Rory: Well, the usual ones, I think. People have a lot of social media apps on their phones that they can scroll through. And things connected to work, like email and calendar planners seem just about ubiquitous. I think they even come with the phones these days. So you don't even need to download them.

Maria: And why are these apps popular?

Rory: I imagine because they're things people consider essential and they just can't live without these days. Almost everyone has some kind of social media presence, especially younger people, or they might need to get in touch with their work or loved ones via different messenger apps. So it makes sense these would be the most popular ones.

Maria: Why do some people dislike using apps?

Rory: Well, they can be pretty intrusive at times. Even if you turn off the sound on the notifications, you still sometimes get banner notifications at the top of your screen notifying you of different things, or even telling you you've turned off the notifications and asking you to turn them back on. That could get annoying after a while.

Maria: What are the differences between old and young people when using apps?

Rory: Well, there could be a few. First of all, it might be about the type of apps being used. Older people probably want to have more work-related ones on their phones, whereas young people will have ones which are more about fun and games. They might also use them differently. I can see old people being more discerning about what they put on social media apps, while youngsters are probably a bit more carefree.

Maria: What are the drawbacks of having too many apps?

Rory: Just being overloaded with notifications and too distracted to actually enjoy life, I suppose. I think that's the first and foremost one. Another thing, more practically or logistically speaking, maybe it would drain the battery on your phone faster than normal.

Discussion

Maria: Thank you Rory for your answers. Dear listener. So questions could be about apps, applications on your phone, popular, not popular.

So if this topic is difficult for you, please do the research, some Google what apps are popular. And Google tells us that in 2025, 2026, the most popular apps globally, all around the world, are TikTok, Instagram, WhatsApp, and ChatGPT.

Rory: Really?

Maria: Yeah, also video editing apps are really popular globally all over the world. CapCut, for example. And different e-commerce apps like banking apps, but they are kind of local. But yeah, everybody uses TikTok and Instagram, Facebook. So yeah. ChatGPT has become one of the fastest growing apps all over the world. Also YouTube and Spotify, Netflix and CapCut. Amazon app, but again, not everyone has an Amazon app, I think, but it's quite popular. Interesting, right? So, dear listener, you can talk about a ChatGPT if you have this app. Maybe you don't. I don't know, but yeah, you can make some examples like this and educate the examiner about what's popular and what's not. Yeah, actually, ChatGPT was the most popular app in 2025. Surpassing TikTok and Instagram. Seven hundred seventy million downloads worldwide. It's insane.

Rory: Maria's just flabbergasted.

Maria: Yeah, I know. ChatGPT surpassed TikTok and Instagram. Can you imagine? Oh la la. Yeah, so you can talk about AI apps, right, dear listener? Fast growing apps with lots of active users, right? So ChatGPT dominates the market. There we go. So we say that people are more and more reliant on different apps. So people rely on different apps. People depend on apps. Reliant is a C2 word. Maybe the examiner doesn't use this word in the question, but you can use it, dear listener. And you can say that people are completely reliant on different applications. So they need applications to live, to succeed, to work correctly. We are reliant on something. We depend on something. And young people have more access to different computer programs and apps. They are more adept at using apps. So to be adept at using something means to have a natural ability to do something. And children, teenagers, they are natural at using technology, ChatGPT, different apps, devices. So they are more adept at using social media than older people. Our classical literature is should parents limit their children's use of computer games or computer programs or apps? And here you can say some kids just spend all the time playing games with no repercussions.

Rory: Repercussions are like negative consequences.

Maria: So there should be some repercussions, like effects that an action or event has on something, especially a bad effect. And usually we are talking about something bad. So something has serious repercussions. Repercussions. This is a strange word. Rory, how do you say it? It's very strange.

Rory: Repercussions.

Maria: And could you give us a sentence about games, gaming, and children?

Rory: I suppose some of the repercussions of playing games too much might be withdrawing from social activities and maybe there are some negative health consequences or negative health outcomes like I don't know, poor posture.

Maria: You can start a sentence with ING. Playing games is bad, right? Or playing games doesn't help a child to develop. And if playing games limits children's opportunities to develop, parents should cut them off completely. So parents should not allow their children to play, cut somebody off. That means remove all the games from children. So parents should cut them off. Cut them off. Or if parents give money to children, so, maybe in certain cases they should cut them off, like stop giving them any money.

Rory: Or maybe they could do something more practical. But that just means reasonable and you can actually do it. Usually cutting people off from playing video games or anything else doesn't really work so well.

Maria: As for the popular apps, dear listener in your country, again, as I've told you, TikTok, Instagram, WhatsApp, ChatGPT, so that's popular everywhere and which means that that's they are maybe the most popular ones in your country. But you can do some research and kind of find out, okay, the most popular apps in Thailand. And people have a lot of social media apps on their phones. So they scroll through Instagram all the time.

Rory: That's very important, actually. I was just thinking about some problems that my students were having and they often say they scroll Instagram, but you don't. You scroll through Instagram or scroll through your feed, for example.

Maria: Another good adjective to use is ubiquitous.

Rory: Ooh, but that's, that sounds complicated. But it just means that something that's everywhere and always present.

Maria: Yeah, if something is ubiquitous, it's everywhere. Like social media apps are ubiquitous. The ubiquitous spread of English. So English is everywhere. And such apps are popular because they are essential. People consider them essential, super important for their life. Because people need them to get in touch with their work or friends. And we say that we write to people, we contact people via different messenger apps. Like WhatsApp, Telegram are messenger apps.

Rory: Or we write to people on messenger apps when we're using them. Because it's the internet. On the internet, always on, never in the internet.

Maria: Some people dislike using apps. Yeah, some people dislike traveling, they dislike drinking water, breathing.

Rory: Some people dislike breathing.

Maria: Why do I have to do this all the time?

Rory: Why do you have such a grudge against people that don't like social media apps?

Maria: No, no, no. I'm just saying that's some people dislike many things. And you can mention notifications. So they can be pretty intrusive, right? So getting all these irritating, annoying notifications that, oh, you have a message. So they could be pretty intrusive. So they interfere into your life. You get distracted, you lose your focus. Of course, you have to respond to everyone at once. When something affects you in a way that annoys you, makes you feel uncomfortable. For example, you can have intrusive thoughts. Like all these thoughts you have in your head, dear listener, nonstop all the time. So they are intrusive thoughts. We can turn off notifications, but still you sometimes get banners.

Rory: You get a notification telling you that you turned off notifications.

Maria: Yeah, it could be annoying having all the messages and you have to answer and people expect you to answer right away because you have nothing else to do, right? You're not busy, no. You just they write to you and you have to answer back right away. Yeah, if you don't, then, well, they might be offended. Young people use different apps from old people. So for young people, it's like ChatGPT, social apps. For older people, it might be, I don't know, banking, weather, focus apps. Or they usually don't use any apps. Maybe Telegram, maybe some messengers, right, to chat with their family.

Rory: They might use the call app.

Maria: You're right. Okay.

Rory: If they're feeling really wild.

Maria: Yeah, but usually just, email app, like Gmail, for example, or maybe a taxi. Yeah, taxi, an app for a taxi. There you go. Yeah, but that's it.

Rory: So we can be different in how we use things, as well as what we use.

Maria: Yeah, and older people want to have more work-related apps on their phones. While young people prefer entertainment, games, fun. Yeah, game apps, right? Cause we don't play games on our phones, dear listener. We are old with Rory. So we're busy, so, sorry if we don't name any game apps. We're boring, dear listener. We don't play, we don't play, we don't play games on our phones.

Rory: I, well, that's true. We don't play games on our phones. I think the closest I get is chess, and that's about it.

Maria: Oh, you play chess on your phone? Look at you. Educated Rory. Wow, nice.

Rory: It's not. I'm just bored and I couldn't find anything else.

Maria: Young people or youngsters, dear listener, kind of like children, youngsters, young people, teenagers, younger people, yeah, older people. And youngsters are more carefree. So they don't care. They are carefree. Yeah. Games and TikTok. Rory, what about TikTok? Do you watch TikTok?

Rory: Not really. No. I know we're on TikTok, but I don't really pay attention to TikTok, unfortunately.

Maria: And could you, could you, could you ask me

Rory: about the TikTok? Maria, do you watch TikTok or do you go on TikTok?

Maria: I don't have TikTok on my phone. There you go, dear listener, now you know one person in your life who doesn't have any TikTok app on their phone. Yeah, that's me. I'm TikTok free.

Rory: And Rory is on TikTok.

Rory: No, I'm not on TikTok, but we are, we have a joint account on TikTok.

Maria: Right, dear listener. How are you doing? Are you fine? Are you okay? Are you happy? Are you hungry? Are you bored to death? Are you nervous about the test? Don't be nervous. It's just a test. You just speak English, smile, be friendly to the examiner. And do you remember our secret strategy? You make a joke and then you laugh in a stupid way.

Rory: That's Maria's secret strategy. Mine is a little bit different.

Maria: This makes the examiner happy. The examiner starts laughing because of your stupid laughter. Oh, yeah, okay. Thank you very much for listening.

Rory: And we'll see you next time.

Maria: Mwah.

Rory: Bye.