📘 Part 3: Smartphones

This episode's vocabulary

Have enough on one's plate (idiom) – to be too busy to do something else. → Our police force seems to have enough on their plate as it is.

Enforce (v) – to make people obey a rule or law. → People should be prepared to enforce social conventions and back each other up when they do.

Practicable (adj) – able to be done or put into practice successfully. → That seems more attainable and maybe practicable than getting the government involved.

Wind up with (phr. v) – to finally be in a particular place or situation. → If you wind up with just a ton of pictures that you never do anything with, then it's not a great use of time.

A ton of (idiom) – a large amount of something. → Younger people might have a ton of social media apps on their phones.

Undermine (v) – to make something weaker or less effective, often gradually. → Spending time on phones could undermine friendships if people are seen to be getting ignored.

To the detriment of (phrase) – causing harm or damage to something. → They'll spend time on their phones to the detriment of real life interaction.

Conducive to (adj) – providing the right conditions for something good to happen or exist. → Constant notifications aren't very conducive to a good relationship.

Novelty (n) – the quality of being new, original, or unusual. → Younger people are all about novelty and excitement.

Social inertia (n) – the resistance to change or the tendency to maintain the status quo in a social group. → You might just rely on some kind of social inertia to keep friendships ticking over.

Keep things ticking over (idiom) – to keep something functioning at a basic or satisfactory level. → Social inertia can keep things ticking over, but mobile phones allow for a better connection.

Reminisce (v) – to indulge in enjoyable recollection of past events. → Later on this year, I'll be looking through all my old photos and reminiscing.

Detrimental (adj) – causing harm or damage. → Mobile phones could have a detrimental effect on friendship.

Doomscrolling (n) – the act of spending a lot of time consuming large quantities of negative online news. → I was awake half the night doomscrolling.

Questions and Answers

Maria: Do you think it's necessary to have laws on the use of mobile phones?

Rory: Well, I can think of a lot of parents who would love the thought of that, but I'm not sure how on earth you might enforce that. I mean, our police force seems to have enough on their plate as it is. I think it would be maybe better to have layers of things like social conventions and venue and family policies and agreements as to where and when they are appropriate to use and when it's not allowed. And people should be prepared to enforce them and back each other up when they do. That seems more attainable and maybe practicable than getting the government involved.

Maria: Is it a waste of time to take pictures with mobile phones?

Rory: Well, surely that depends on what you ultimately do with them. I mean, if you wind up with just a ton of pictures that you never do anything with, then it's not a great use of time. But if you photograph something that inspires you, like a piece of artwork or something, and then you come back to it later on to help with your work, then it's certainly been worth the effort.

Maria: What do you think of selfies?

Rory: Well, it's the same principle. It's still a photograph, and it should be taken with a purpose if it's going to have some kind of value. It's not being taken just because, or hopefully it's not. So I don't distinguish what I said about pictures in general from what I'm going to say about selfies. It's the same idea.

Maria: What positive impacts do mobile phones have on friendship?

Rory: Well, I suppose they allow you to stay in touch with people over greater distances and times. So they might help people who rarely see each other maintain a sense of connection better or at least they can do that better than just relying on some kind of social inertia to keep things ticking over. They can also give you different ways to interact, like on social media with different memes. So things are always fresh and they don't get boring easily.

Maria: And what about the negative impacts on friendship?

Rory: Oh, I mean, well, a lot of people tend to mistake the medium for the message, don't they? So they'll spend time on their phones to the detriment of real life interaction and that could undermine friendships if people are seen to be getting ignored by their friends, who might be favoring their phones. So they could also just be a distraction in general, with notifications going off all the time and interrupting people, which isn't very conducive to a good relationship, is it?

Maria: How do young and old people use mobile phones differently?

Rory: Well, if younger people are all about novelty and excitement, then I imagine they'll be downloading different kinds of apps that work in a variety of ways to cater to that. So that could be getting ones for gaming in various forms or just a ton of social media apps that have slight tweaks to make them seem interesting. Older people tend towards more practicality and stability. So they're more likely to stick to work related things like email or AI apps to increase productivity. At least that seems to be the case.

Maria: Do you think it's a good idea to allow young children to use mobile phones?

Rory: Well, they should learn to use them responsibly. So provided it's being done under the supervision of a responsible adult, then why not? I think that's perfectly acceptable.

Discussion

Maria: Right dear listener, so the examiner can call them like mobile phones, but today, we usually say smartphones, right?

Maria: Because a mobile phone is not a smartphone.

Rory: Well, it's kind of that. But we usually when we talk about mobiles, we're usually referring to smartphones nowadays.

Maria: Exactly. We can have laws on the use of phones.

Rory: Well, we could. I don't think that will work.

Maria: We enforce laws. The authorities enforce different laws.

Rory: People can enforce laws too. In some countries, at least. Yeah, the things like citizen's arrest, for example, you can that's enforcing the law on behalf of the government or the police.

Maria: Yeah, so when you enforce a law, you make people follow the law. Actually C1.

Rory: Oh, wow, I thought that would be lower.

Maria: For example, the police enforce speed limits.

Rory: Ideally.

Maria: Yeah. And like we must follow speed limits, right? So this rule is enforced. So you can say that, yeah, I believe that it's useful to enforce laws on smartphones. It's the responsibility of people, because the police are too busy to do that. So you can say our police forces have enough on their plate. If you have enough on your plate, you are too busy to do something else. Because you're busy, right? I have enough on my plate. I have a lot of things to do. Do you have a lot on your plate?

Maria: I have a lot on my plate.

Rory: Me too.

Maria: Like chicken, salad, pizza.

Rory: Oh my gosh, I'm about to have a lot on my plate as well, because I've just realized that someone has signed up for one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven classes with me.

Maria: Classes with Rory.

Rory: So I'm definitely going to have a lot on my plate in the future.

Maria: So you can say that we should have social conventions, kind of social rules, not laws, but rules. Family policies. So, in a family, we have a policy that nobody uses a smartphone during dinner, for example. Yeah? Or at night. We should have family agreements or agreements between friends that when we meet together, we don't use our smartphones. I don't know, for example. For five minutes. Yeah.

Rory: Well, that's not, we're laughing about this, but that's not unreasonable. I had a similar rule with my family and whenever we had friends over.

Maria: My mum always gets annoyed, like, oh, stop, stop, put your phone down. But yeah, I work, alright?

Rory: You work at the dinner table, Maria.

Maria: And I scroll, yeah, I scroll Instagram endlessly when I'm bored.

Rory: Oh, you scroll Instagram when you're with your mother. Oh. You should be ashamed. I do exactly the same thing, but that's not the point.

Maria: Ah, no, so I'm horrible. Ah, yes. So welcome into our family.

Rory: Welcome into our family. Now, excuse me while I go and doom scroll.

Maria: We are just useless doomscrollers. Oh, my God. Okay, so, right, policies, dear listener. Family policies, rather than government laws. We take pictures. We don't make pictures. Please say take pictures, take selfies, take pictures, take photos. And it depends on the number of photos you take. If you wind up with millions of pictures, then it's not a good idea. So wind up, end up. If you take millions of pictures, and you just end up having so much stuff on your phone.

Rory: The end result to talk about winding up with something.

Maria: If you wind up with a ton of pictures, a ton of pictures, a lot of pictures. So if you end up with a ton of pictures on your phone, or if you wind up with a ton of pictures on your phone. Well, that's not a great use of your time, and space on your phone.

Rory: Yeah.

Maria: If you just don't use these photographs or photos. But if your photos inspire you, inspire, they give you inspiration, you look at them once in a while. They make you feel nice. They make you want to do something for society. Or if your photos are a piece of art, if it's artwork, then okay, why not? Yeah, but usually, dear listener, we just have a ton of pictures that we never look at again.

Rory: I know. Look at the pictures on your phones. What are they pictures of? Maybe share them.

Maria: Yeah, but sometimes, actually, I do take screenshots. You see? We take screenshots of something useful. So you can say, yeah, having useful screenshots of a recipe, or, of I don't know, a place, a film. For example, I take, many people take screenshots of films that they want to see, places they want to go to, you see? So screenshots, right? Maybe your family photos are useful, photos from your holiday, people usually look at them in the middle of winter when it's cold and lonely and boring. Yeah. Or maybe you don't. I don't know.

Rory: Well, that's what I plan to do this winter. Later on this year, I'll be looking through all my old photos and reminiscing.

Maria: Reminiscing must be a C2 level word. Come on.

Rory: Yeah, yeah, it is. It is.

Maria: Is it? Have you just decided that?

Rory: Yeah, I've just decided that.

Maria: Reminisce, if I can spell it out. Yeah, reminisce is like talk or write about past experiences that you remember with pleasure. So it's a good one. It's a formal word, dear listener. Reminisce. Like, my grandfather usually reminisces about his years, I don't know, in the army.

Rory: Chat GPT says it's C1, but Chat GPT is wrong. It's C2.

Maria: It's C2, exactly. We just don't, don't, don't believe Chat GPT.

Rory: Don't believe Chat GPT, believe Maria, the dictionary of Maria.

Maria: Mobile phones could have a positive impact on friendship or a negative impact on friendship. Impact is the same as influence. If you're tired of using influence... Oh, impact, C2.

Rory: Yes! Finally.

Maria: Oh, wow! According to Cambridge online dictionary, we believe Cambridge, all right? So if Cambridge says it's C2, we believe it. But feel free to check with Chat GPT.

Rory: What, what was the word? Impact?

Maria: Impact, yeah.

Rory: Hold on, let's see. What about the word impact? Oh, well, according to Chat GPT, oh, wait, hold on. Hmm. It says it could be B1 if it's a noun.

Maria: Impact is B2. Oh! When you mean an effect. So impact on something, an effect on, it's B2. So what band is it B2?

Rory: Seven, 7.5.

Maria: But if you use impact.

Rory: What? No, B2 is 6.5.

Maria: No, B2 is like upper intermediate, so it could be 6.5, 7.

Rory: Okay, fine, compromise.

Maria: Yeah, compromise. All right. But if you use impact in the meaning of the force or action of one object hitting another...

Rory: Ooh, the force like a Jedi.

Maria: The impact of the crash reduced the car... No, it's so difficult, dear listener, forget about it.

Rory: You could, you could talk about the impact of the use of mobile phones. There we go.

Maria: Yeah, so B2 is, okay.

Rory: Chat GPT says it can be B1, B2, or C1 depending on how it's used. However, I'm going with Maria's. It's C2. Use it all over the place.

Maria: No, it's C2 only when in one meaning, which is strange. So, dear listener, you say that mobile phones allow you to stay in touch with people, stay in touch with people, so chat to people, contact people. If people rarely see each other, in real life, rarely, like hardly ever, almost never, they maintain, keep a sense of connection via mobile phones. And people interact with each other on social media, on social media, on Instagram, like share different memes, doom scroll late at night. However, mobile phones might have some negative influence on friendship. So might have a negative impact on friendship. If the examiner uses the word impact, say influence. Don't repeat the examiner's words.

Rory: Absolutely not. It is forbidden.

Maria: People spend too much time on their phones, instead of real life interaction, real life communication, real life, face to face communication. And people might ignore each other. Also, mobile phones could be a distraction when you meet your friends and then you are on your phone all the time. So it's a distraction. And notifications are annoying. So instead of talking to your friends, instead of having quality time with your friends, you are on your phone. Young people and old people use mobile phones differently. So younger people are about novelty. Novelty is something new, we have an adjective, novel, new. Novelty, C2. There we go.

Rory: Oh, finally. Are you sure?

Maria: Perfect. Yeah, band nine. Well, Cambridge online dictionary is very sure. The quality of being new and unusual. Okay? So younger people enjoy novelty. The novelty of these toys. So younger people are all about novelty and excitement. So they are excited when they use their mobile phones. They download different apps. They use mobile phones for gaming. They have a ton of social media apps. Again, a ton of, a lot of. If you're bored of a lot of, a lot of, a lot of, a lot of, many, many, many, many, many, many, too many. So just say, oh, a ton of social media apps, a ton of apps, like a ton of gaming apps.

Rory: Or a million apps, maybe.

Maria: How many apps do you have on your phone? Oh, a ton.

Rory: I have 20. Maybe.

Maria: 20? Oh, you're boring.

Rory: Boring.

Maria: Well, hold on. Let's do a rough average. That's 9 times 5. I have 45 apps, roughly.

Maria: 45 apps.

Rory: Maybe. Yeah. Roughly 45. I have them grouped and organized, which no one will be surprised by, because I'm so ridiculously organized.

Maria: Wow. Wow.

Rory: I have them grouped into files and stuff. Yeah.

Maria: I have a mess.

Rory: You know what, Maria, you will live longer because of that. It took me ages to organize them, and I was just like, why am I doing this to myself?

Maria: Rory is band nine. In terms of organization.

Rory: A band nine organized, yeah, person. You have missed other words though. Oh, I'm so, not annoyed. I'm gutted that you've missed them, but I'm not going to allow you to skip over them, because we said they could undermine friendships if they have a negative impact. Undermine is a C2 level word. I remember you saying that.

Maria: Undermine.

Rory: Yes. C2.

Maria: Yes, it's just a word difficult to explain and use.

Rory: It is not. Undermine means damage or lower the quality of something. Phones can undermine a friendship if you focus only on the phone and not your friend.

Maria: Criticism undermines our confidence. So it makes, criticism makes our confidence less powerful and confident.

Rory: Talking about undermining, the phones could work to the detriment of real life interaction. So if something is done to the detriment of something, it means it undermines it.

Maria: Detriment.

Rory: The detriment. Come on, that's got to be C2.

Maria: Detriment means harm or damage, okay? So without detriment to our health, without damage to our health. Cambridge online dictionary doesn't say anything about the level of this word, but it's very cool. Because we have detrimental. Detrimental meaning bad. Oh, detrimental C2, there we go. So you can say that mobile phones could be quite detrimental to friendship, band nine. Detrimental, you see? Causing harm or damage. Oh, there you go. Mobile phones could have a detrimental effect on friendship or impact.

Rory: There's another one that you've missed actually, thinking about it now, because I said that you would just rely on social inertia to keep things ticking over. Social inertia is just when you just allow things to continue without making any effort. And to keep things ticking over is just to keep things going forward or to continue things.

Maria: For example, social inertia.

Rory: So social inertia, like an example of that would just be you have a group of friends that hang out with each other just because, you don't really have anything in common. However, to keep things ticking over would be, imagine you go away on holiday and someone looks after your business, for example, while you are away. They keep things ticking over. They continue the functions.

Maria: Inertia, lack of activity. Lack of activity or interest, unwillingness to make an effort to do anything. For example, bureaucratic inertia. The tendency not to change what is happening. So, for example, many teachers don't use AI simply out of inertia.

Rory: See what I mean? It's a gold mine of band nine vocabulary. But instead, we just spend time talking about how we doom scroll when we're ignoring our families. Amazing. The quality of this podcast is unsurpassed, top notch.

Maria: Yeah, doom scrolling. Well, doom scrolling was the word of the year in 2025, dear listener. So doom scrolling, doom scroller. Oh, doomscrolling, what level is this? It's just the word of the year. Doom scroll. Doom scroll. Yeah, it doesn't say what level. Oh, actually, it's humorous. Doom scroll, to spend a lot of time looking at your phone or computer, computer, also, and reading bad or negative news stories. So usually bad. I was awake half the night doom scrolling. So doomscrolling is usually about something negative, okay? Yeah, we constantly doom scroll social media. Do you doom scroll? I doom scrolled Instagram last night. But now I think people use it for everything. If we scroll through Instagram, like stupid reels, so that's also doomscrolling. Okay.

Rory: We've got a 25 minute episode. Come on.

Maria: Thank you very much for listening. We love you. We hug you. No doom scrolling, okay? We can do doom scrolling for you, dear listener, all right? Just leave it to us.

Rory: Leave it to the experts.

Maria: We do the doom scrolling, you do the learning, okay? Bye.

Rory: Bye.