Social Media
Which social media websites do you use? How much time do you spend on social media? What kind of information about yourself have you put on social media?
Vocabulary
  • Run of the mill (adj.) — ordinary and not interesting.
  • Genuine (adj.) — real, rather than pretended or false.
  • To deprive (verb) — if you deprive someone of something, you take it away from them or prevent them from having it.
  • Advertising campaign (noun) — an organized course of action to promote a product or service.
  • To virtue signal (verb) —to show other people that you are a good person, for example by expressing opinions that will be acceptable to them, especially on social media.
  • To misrepresent (verb) — to describe falsely an idea, opinion, or situation, often in order to get an advantage.
  • To encrypt (verb) — to put information into code (=a system of words, numbers, or symbols that hides its real meaning)
  • User-friendly (adj.) — a user-friendly system or piece of equipment is easy to use or understand.
  • Notifications (noun) — a message that is automatically sent to you to tell you there has been activity on one of your social media accounts.
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Questions and answers
Maria: Rory, which social media websites do you use?

Rory: I think I use all of the normal ones like Instagram and VK and Facebook. It’s really just for promotional and work purposes, though. I’m not using them seriously at all.

Maria: How much time do you spend on social media?

Rory: I try not to spend too much time on social media, so maybe like one or two hours a day, maximum. I think it’s important not to waste time. And of course, you’ve got to be careful you don’t become addicted to social media because it can… well make you anxious, if you’re on there posting things and you don’t get any replies for a while. So it’s it’s important that you don’t mess up your brain chemistry as well.

Maria: What kind of information about yourself have you put on social media?

Rory: It’s pretty run of the mill stuff, to be honest. It’s just personal details like, well, my name, obviously, and then where I work. I also added a few pictures about my life, well, a few pictures that sort of showcase my life, as it were. But there’s nothing too personal. It’s important for something to look professional as well as just to have professional details.

Maria: Do you have your birthday?

Rory: I don’t know. I put my birthday in with the sign up information, but I don’t know if it shows when my birthday is on my social media or not.

Maria: Are you updating your status?

Rory: No, I don’t… I don’t believe in status updates. I think… You know, if I have something interesting to post, then I’ll post it. But most of the time, I just prefer to let people come and talk to me about what’s happening. It’s less about seeking attention and more about having genuine conversations with people.

Maria: Dear listeners, just to make it clear - Rory has joined social media…it was when Rory? When did you join? Two months ago?

Rory: No, no, I joined social media about two weeks ago, to be honest with you. By the time this podcast goes out, it’s probably going to be, what, three weeks? Four?

Maria: So Rory has been on social media for three weeks now. Wow! That’s an achievement! Before that, he didn’t use to have any social media. He was Facebookless, Instagramless, right Rory?

Rory: Yeah.

Maria: And the question is — why? Why did you deprive yourself of all social media possible?

Rory: I don’t like social media. The only reason I got social media was — it was a more effective way to stay in touch with people. And even then I doubt that. And the second, even the main reason, to be honest with you, was so I could promote my book. It’s not even that serious. I’m just having fun with different promotional activities that I can do. I’m not really invested in this process at all.

Maria: But was it difficult for you to go from zero with, like, no social media whatsoever and have all the social media.

Rory: Not, so far. It’s been more difficult to create an advertising campaign, to be honest with you, because I had to organize everything in advance, and that’s not going so well. But to actually have access to all of the different kinds of social media, not so much.

Maria: Is there anything you don’t like about social media?

Rory: Yes, everything. I don’t like how people virtue signal. I don’t like how people spread fake news. I don’t like how people misrepresent their lives. It’s designed to do this. It’s designed so that you show the best parts of your life. But no one actually sees how you, like, how you got there. And everyone just assumes like: “Oh, this person has an amazing life because they just post all of these positive pictures.”. But the thing is — it’s not, because they don’t post the pictures of the hard work that it took to get there. And I’m also not sure that all of the increased contact and connectivity that seem to be the advantages are are worth it, to be honest… if that’s the price that you have to pay.

Maria: What kind of chatting apps do people use in your country?

Rory: I don’t know if it’s any different from anywhere else, except for China maybe. I think they use a totally different system. But WhatsApp seems to be the most common. “WhatsApp, Please pay us for advertising”, just because it’s encrypted, safe, reliable. And it’s pretty user friendly, to be honest. So I think all of these things contribute to being quite a commonplace thing.

Maria: How often are you on WhatsApp?

Rory: I think…

Maria: Every hour ????

Rory: Well, I always have the app open, but I turn off my notifications, so in some ways I’m on it all the time. But at the same time, maybe I only spend like an hour, like, collectively, I spend an hour maximum on it.

Maria: And is your time spent on social media… Is it increasing?

Rory: Well, yes, because any increase on zero is an increase. But it’s not taken over my life just
yet.

Maria: He’s using it more and more, dear listeners! Rory has has just entered the dark side. Is it easy to find a real friend on social networks?

Rory: I don’t think so. I think face to face contact is better with real people that you have real stories and adventures with. There are probably some exceptions to this rule, like some people play video games online with people. But I think real world friendships are more legitimate, to be honest. In the grand scheme of things. Maybe if you’re if you’re doing something together online, even if you haven’t met the people, then it’s OK. But just, like, adding people to social media or following people on social media, just “because”, if you’ve never met them before is a bit strange for me.

Maria: Rory, thank you very much for your confession.
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