Hello, and welcome back to our beloved listeners.
This is the 8 -Minute English Podcast series on the Learn English Podcast channel.
I am your host, Nathan, and it's a pleasure to have you with us again.
Before we get into today's topic, I want to ask you something.
Think about a social media platform that you use every day.
How many times do you use it per day?
There's no denying that social networks like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter have fundamentally transformed how we communicate, share information, and spend our time in the modern age.
In today's episode, we'll explore the impact of social networks.
Also, we've prepared a special free PDF for this episode, full of useful tips and vocabulary to help enhance your learning.
Make sure to check it out.
Today, we're in a training session with James and Chloe.
They're talking about social networking.
Chloe, happy first day as our new intern.
I am the manager of the marketing department.
Today, we will have a training session for interns and I will directly share knowledge about social networks with you.
Thanks, James. I'm eager to learn about this exciting topic.
Let's begin with my space back in 2003.
People could make their own profile pages with colors, music, and pictures.
Do you remember MySpace?
Oh, yes. I recall MySpace a little bit.
Didn't it let you pick your top eight best friends?
Correct. The top eight friends feature was very popular on MySpace.
It was one of the first big social networks connecting people online.
After 2008, Facebook became more widely used than MySpace.
Facebook had a simpler design with news feeds, photo tagging, and the famous like button.
I know Facebook well.
My parents didn't let me join it until I was older during my teenage years.
Facebook just looked cleaner compared to MySpace's busy pages.
True, using social apps on phones made it much easier to share posts and videos wherever you are.
Platforms like TikTok really capitalized on that.
Great point about TikTok.
Their endless feed of fun, short videos tapped into keeping people's attention hooked like never before.
The evolution continues.
Okay, Chloe, now that we talked about how social networks changed over time, let's discuss why people can get really interested and even hooked on using them.
Yes, I want to understand the psychological reasons behind why social media plays such a big role in people's lives and emotions nowadays.
One main reason is the desire to connect with others and feel like you belong.
Posting updates and getting likes, comments from friends gives people a feeling of social approval.
I can relate to that urge to share parts of my life online and have others react positively.
It does give you a little boost.
Exactly. And feeling fear of missing out or FOMO is another big motivation.
Seeing what friends are doing makes you want to stay updated.
Yes, I've definitely experienced FOMO before when scrolling through everyone's posts.
It's easy to keep checking compulsively.
The endless scrolling and small rewards, like a new like or comment release dopamine in our brains.
It can create habits similar to a gambling addiction.
It may seem extreme to compare it to gambling, but I can see how those little rewards could really make it habit forming over time.
Definitely social media is designed using psychology to maximize engagement.
Notifications, streaks, endless feeds they tap into human behavior.
Next, let's talk about privacy concerns with social media.
Protecting personal information online is very important.
Oh yes, privacy is definitely something I worry about when using social networks.
Social media companies collect a lot of data about our interests, locations, contacts, and behaviors.
This data is very valuable for advertising.
It's kind of scary how much personal information gets tracked, just from normal usage.
But I guess that's how they make money through targeted ads.
Exactly. And sometimes this data gets shared with third party companies without users realizing it.
There have been some big privacy scandals.
I remember hearing about those scandals in the news.
It makes me concerned about who might access my data and personal details.
Right. While social media provides many benefits, we have to be proactive about privacy.
Staying educated on best practices is important.
Let's discuss how social media impacts our relationships and connections with others.
Yes. I'm curious how platforms like Instagram and TikTok affect friendships, dating, and even family bonds.
Social media definitely allows us to stay in touch and share updates with friends, relatives more easily.
But there are potential downsides too.
It is convenient being able to message and see what friends are up to online.
But I could see how it might replace actual in -person quality time.
Exactly. Some research shows increased passive social media use can make people feel more lonely and disconnected in real life.
That makes sense. Just scrolling through posts without real interaction could negatively impact close relationships over time.
Another issue is couples being distracted and not present with each other due to excessive social media habits.
It can cause conflicts.
You're right. While social media facilitates connections across distances, we have to be intentional about balancing online and real world relationships.
Now that we've heard some wonderful weekend stories, let's talk about some key vocabulary related to our topic.
First up, evolution.
To the slow, steady development of something.
In politics, Britain has preferred evolution to revolution.
Next is emotion. A strong feeling such as love, fear, or anger, the part of a person's character that consists of feelings.
They expressed mixed emotions at the news.
Addiction is another noun.
The condition of being unable to stop using or doing something as a habit, especially something harmful.
He's now fighting his addiction to alcohol.
Let's look at advertising.
The activity and industry of advertising things to people on television, in newspapers, on the internet, etc.
Paid advertising on social media is an assured way to reach out to customers.
Finally, disconnected.
Two, related to or connected with the things or people around.
I felt disconnected from the world around me.
Let's delve into two important questions about our topic.
The first question is how social media affects our relationship and daily life.
Personally, I think while social media helps us connect with others from far away, it can be hard to manage both online and face -to -face relationships.
The second question, how business can take advantages of social media?
For me, companies can leverage social media as a tool to reach customers more quickly through engaging posts, as these posts often garner a lot of attention.
I'd love to hear your thoughts on these questions.
Please leave your comments below and let's discuss.
As we wrap up today's episode, I will tell you some funny and surprising facts about social media that you may not know.
Instagram has over 1 billion people using it every month.
That's a lot of people sharing photos and the most liked Instagram photo ever is.
An egg. A simple picture of an egg has over 54 million likes.
Some social media influencers can make a lot of money.
The highest paid influencer in 2022 was a soccer player named Cristiano Ronaldo.
He made $1 .6 million for just one sponsored post.
Isn't that interesting?
Social media started small but now it's huge and affects our lives in many ways.
That's all for now, but I will come back with an interesting topic in next episode.
We can keep sharing, keep connecting and remember the internet remembers everything.
