Welcome to the Listening Time Podcast.
Hey everybody, this is Connor and you're listening to episode 70 of the Listening Time Podcast.
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Alright, so in today's episode we're going to talk about cell phones.
This is a good topic to talk about because most of us use a cell phone or multiple cell phones on a daily basis, and this is a very important part of our lives, because we use cell phones for so many different things nowadays, and so I thought it would be a good topic to talk about in this episode.
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All right, let's get started.
Are your ears ready?
You know what time it is.
It's listening time.
Okay, so let's talk about cell phones.
First, I want to talk about cell phones from the past, the cell phones that I remember when I was growing up.
So I remember, when I was in middle school and in my early years of high school, that almost everyone had a flip phone.
A flip phone is a phone that folds.
It has two parts and you have to open it.
I'm sure a lot of you remember these types of phones.
I had flip phones when I was younger.
I think my first three phones were flip phones, if I'm not mistaken.
So for a while, this was the standard.
This was the normal type of phone that most people had.
And I thought these phones were pretty cool.
I liked opening it up and using my thumb to kind of flip it open.
And I thought that was a pretty cool invention at the time.
And those first phones that a lot of us had were mostly for calling and texting.
They were actually phones, right?
We used them mostly to communicate with other people.
Because most of them didn't have the internet, and so we couldn't really do anything online with those phones.
And I remember during those days, I made more phone calls than I do now.
I talked to more people on the phone.
I remember talking to my friends on the phone in the evening after school.
I even remember having group phone calls with more than two people.
And so this was really normal back in the day.
In English, when we use the phrase back in the day, we just mean in the past.
So back in the day it was really normal for people to make a lot of phone calls from their cell phones.
And this was the primary way that a lot of people talk to each other.
And a lot of people didn't have unlimited texting plans.
So text messages were limited then.
And so we didn't want to use all of our texts and waste all of our messages.
So we would try to call each other and then sometimes text each other.
And I also remember that.
Another thing that I thought was really cool with those original phones was that a lot of us used different ringtones for different people.
In English, the word ringtone refers to the music or the sound that you hear when someone calls your phone.
This is a ringtone.
So I remember that I put a different ringtone for different friends.
And we thought this was so cool to have, like a customized ringtone that matched this specific friend and that specific friend.
And we had a lot of fun with this and it was something we thought was cool.
And I also remember at that time that the coolest phone on the market was the Blackberry.
I'm sure some of you remember this phone.
I don't know if a lot of people still have this phone.
Maybe they do.
I don't know.
But I remember back then when we saw people using a Blackberry, we thought that that person was cool or he was a businessman or someone cool. rich or important or something like that.
And so blackberries at that time were kind of like a status symbol.
I think a lot of businessmen had them in English.
When we say the phrase status symbol, we're saying that something reflects a certain status, and So if I say that blackberries are a status symbol, this means that if you have a blackberry, it tells other people that you have a certain status in society.
You're high class or something like that.
And I also remember that at that time, camera phones were just starting to come out.
And before, when I had my first two phones, I think, or three phones, I don't remember, but my first phones didn't have a camera.
So I didn't even think about taking pictures or videos or things like that.
But then suddenly camera phones came onto the market and a lot of people wanted these phones so they could take pictures.
And this really changed the game for cell phones.
Alright, let me talk a little bit about cell phones nowadays.
So nowadays, cell phones are basically little computers.
They do the same thing that your computer does. but they're much, much smaller.
So calling people is a minor feature in today's cell phones.
In English, the word feature refers to a characteristic that something has or that someone has.
For example, I could say his best feature is his personality.
This means that his best characteristic is his personality.
So calling is kind of a minor feature nowadays with cell phones.
People don't really focus on the call quality or how well the phone calls other people.
People don't really think about this when they buy a new phone.
They think about all the other things that the phone does.
They have different priorities nowadays when they go shopping for phones.
So nowadays we have many, many apps that we can download onto our phones and use them to do a lot of different things.
So there's an app for everything, basically.
And this has really changed the way that we interact with our cell phones and it's changed the way we interact with each other really, and so these apps can be really useful, and some of them aren't that necessary or useful, but they're fun or interesting or they're attractive and so people might download them.
So not all of these apps are necessary, And I don't necessarily have a ton of apps on my phone, but it's cool that we can download different apps for different purposes and do a ton of different things.
And our phones have so much power with these apps now.
One thing that is really popular now, that's really standard for cell phones nowadays is to be used for group messaging.
So I'm sure that you or other people that you know are involved in some type of group message, whether that be with WhatsApp or some other app like that, where you're talking to different people more than just one other person, and you constantly write messages in this group and it never closes or goes away or is deleted.
You just keep this group message open indefinitely.
In English, when we say the word indefinitely, we're saying that something is going to stay until the future and there's no end date.
It's not going to end at any specific point.
It's indefinite.
So we keep these group messages, these group chats open indefinitely.
And whenever you want to say something to that group, you just write a message there and interact with people there.
So this is one of the most normal ways that people keep in touch with each other or with their family nowadays is with this group messaging through their phones.
And now another thing that people use their phones for.
That we couldn't do with the first phones that we had is listen to a lot of music on this phone.
I don't really remember when phones became a big music playing device.
Maybe it was with the iPhone.
I don't remember.
But when I had my first phones, I never listened to music on them.
However, nowadays, it's very normal to listen to music on your phone.
And so it acts kind of like an iPod and a phone together, right?
You can listen to music and it's good quality, and you just put your headphones in and, And a lot of people do this on a daily basis.
So that's another feature of today's phones.
And another one that's really important that I mentioned is we have cameras now and we have video.
And not only that, we also have professional quality cameras and professional quality video.
The quality of some of the cameras on the newest phones of today are It is really really impressive.
So people can use these phones to take professional like photos and record YouTube videos, and it looks fantastic.
And it's really amazing what these phone creators have done with the camera and video app, because they have really come a long way.
In English, when we use the phrase come a long way, we're saying that something has evolved a lot over the years.
It's become something very different from what it was earlier or prior.
So the cameras that we have in our phones today have come a long way from the cameras that we had in our first phones.
So they're very, very impressive and we can do a lot of things with them.
And many professionals use these cameras and use the video to do a lot of different projects.
So that's pretty cool as well.
All right, now let me talk about what I use my phone for and what I don't use it for.
So what I use my phone for.
First of all, I use it to message and I call a little bit.
I don't call people very often.
I usually just call my dad, for example, once in a while, but I don't call that many people nowadays.
I used my first phones to make a lot more calls when I was younger than I do nowadays, but I still do this a little bit.
And I send messages, of course, so I can send messages to people.
That's a basic feature of today's phones, of phones from the past and today, really.
And so of course I use this feature as well.
I use my phone to check my email.
So I check my email probably every day from my phone.
So that's something that's very useful because I can check my email when I'm out and about.
In English, when we use the phrase out and about, we're saying that you're outside the house doing other things.
So when I'm out and about I can check my email just to see if I need to respond to something, if there are any urgent messages or things like that.
So that's pretty useful.
I also use my phone for navigation and for ride sharing.
So that's another really useful feature of today's phones is that we have navigation on them.
And so if I need to find my way to some place, if I need to go somewhere new, I can use these different navigation apps to help get me there.
And of course, I can use my phone for ride sharing.
So, for example, here in Mexico, one of the most popular apps and one that I use a lot is Didi.
This is an app that's similar to Uber, and I use this a lot to get around the city and it's super convenient.
So that's another app that I use a lot on my phone.
And I also use my phone a lot for language learning.
When I'm walking outside, for example, if I'm outside with my son in the stroller and he's asleep I often listen to YouTube videos in other languages, like French, to help me with my French listening practice.
And also if I go to the gym, I can also take my phone with me and listen to YouTube videos or podcasts in French as well.
So language learning is another thing that has been made easier with cell phones, because we can do more language learning nowadays.
We can take our language learning with us when we go outside, when we go to different places.
So that's something that's really useful for me, and it's one of the things that I do the most on my phone.
Alright, now let me talk about what I don't use my phone for.
I talked about the fact that I don't use social media anymore.
I don't use any social media app for personal use.
So I don't use Facebook, I don't use Instagram, I don't use Twitter, Snapchat, any of those things.
Of course, I have my Instagram account for listening time and I post on there sometimes, but I don't have any social media network app that I use for myself.
So I don't use it for that, and so I don't spend a lot of time on my phone.
Nowadays, I think that most people spend a lot of time using social media on their phones, and this is probably the majority of their usage.
But I don't use my phone at all for social media nowadays.
And another thing that I don't use my phone for that much is taking pictures.
I think I took more pictures in the past, but nowadays I rarely take pictures with my phone.
Sometimes I'll see something that I really want to take a picture of, or sometimes There might be something really important that I want to take a picture of so that I can remember it and go back to it in the future, for example.
But usually I don't take a lot of pictures.
I'm not very good at that.
And so I look back at my old photos and I think, wow, I've only taken a few photos this year.
I should have taken a lot more, especially now that I have a son and my.
I want to capture a lot of those moments, but I'm not very good at remembering to take pictures throughout the day.
So I don't do this a lot with my cell phone.
And one other thing that I don't really use my phone for a lot is messaging apps.
I know this might be a surprise for a lot of you, but I do not like messaging apps like WhatsApp and things like this.
I've never liked them and I don't like them now.
And I try not to use these types of apps if I don't have to.
And like I said, a lot of you are probably really shocked to hear that.
In English, when we say that you're shocked, it means that you're really surprised by something.
So I'm sure a lot of you are shocked to hear that, because in most countries nowadays these messaging apps are normal and everyone uses them and everyone has to have them, and this is the way that people communicate with each other.
However, in the US, these messaging apps are not that common, actually.
In the U.S., I never use these messaging apps if I go there.
I've never talked to any family member or friend in the U.S. using these messaging apps.
And so I only have these apps because I live in Mexico and everyone here knows uses these apps, and so it's necessary.
However, in the U.S., people don't like these apps in general.
People don't use them, and I'm one of those people and I've just never gotten used to using it and I just don't like it that much, to be honest.
And you're probably wondering why people in the U.S. don't use these apps.
And I think one of the main reasons why is because in the US, many, many people have iPhones.
So a lot more people in the US have iPhones than people in other countries.
And when you have an iPhone, you have this feature called iMessage.
That's specifically for iPhones messaging other iPhones.
And so because so many people have iPhones in the US, people just use this iMessaging feature.
And it works very similar to WhatsApp or other messaging apps.
And you can have big group messages with a lot of people that have iPhones through this iMessage feature.
And this is really normal.
For example, when I think about my own family members, everyone has an iPhone, 100% of them.
And so it's very easy to have these iMessage groups.
And this is pretty normal in the US.
And so that's an interesting topic, because in a lot of other countries iPhones aren't as accessible and they're much more expensive sometimes even double the price than in the US.
And so we don't have this same iPhone culture in other countries.
In other countries, iPhones are seen more as a luxury or a status symbol.
But in the U.S., it's really normal to have an iPhone or to have a MacBook computer.
These are very normal things and I don't have the statistics in front of me so I can't say for sure, but I would assume that most people in the US have an iPhone.
And sometimes, when you don't have an iPhone, people ask you why, like there's some reason that you have to have to not have an iPhone.
That's how popular they are in the U.S.
So because of that, people use iMessage and they don't use these messaging apps as much.
And I think that explains this difference.
All right.
Well, why don't we stop there for today?
I hope this episode was interesting for you.
I hope that it was good practice for your listening skills.
Remember that you have the transcript available for this episode below the episode, so go down and click on it.
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All right.
Well, thank you for listening to this episode and I'll talk to you on the next episode of Listening Time.
