Hello, lovely, I'm Maria and my name is Rory and we are the host of the IELTS Speaking for Success podcast.
The podcast that aims to help you improve your speaking skills as well as your listening skills along the way.
We started this podcast to give you gorgeous grammar and fabulous vocabulary for your high IELTS school.
No bad Dinesco. Maria, here we are, back on the internet.
Yay! And what a coincidence, because today we're going to be talking about… The internet.
Let us discuss the internet.
What could go wrong?
Rory, when did you start using the internet?
I've never really thought about it before, but it must have been around the time I was 11 or 12, or around about that age, when we bought our first computer and had it hooked up to the internet then.
Not that I did much with it, I would usually just browse and chat to other people using that.
How often do you go online?
Probably just about every day now.
Actually, I can remember the last time I had an internet -free day to be honest with you.
We're so used to just looking at screens from dawn until dusk nowadays, or at least I am.
How does the internet influence people?
Well, I'm not sure the internet itself does anything to influence people in a particular direction, but the things people put on there definitely do.
They could encourage them to buy things through the fear of missing out, or incite them to take all kinds of actions by exposing them to, well, all kinds of incendiary content, really.
Do you think you spent too much time online?
I mean, how do you define too much?
Am I on so much that it's a detriment to my health?
I wouldn't say so. Although, that is what an addict would say, I suppose.
However, objectively speaking, I still manage to get all my jobs done for the day, and I'm not usually too distracted by things on there, so I think my time is pretty reasonable, to be honest.
What would you do without the internet?
Life would be turned completely upside down for me.
I run my classes on there and communicate with my friends and family and students and colleagues, like with email or just messaging apps.
So without the internet to help me to do all of those things, I'd be pretty isolated and I'd actually have a lot more work to do.
It's actually quite scary to think about.
So, do you listen up?
The internet, the big monster, and our saviour.
Mmm, Rory, do we usually say the internet or can I use it without the?
Well, you could if it was used as an adjective, but if we're talking about the thing, then the internet, there is only one.
Can I say I love internet?
No. I love the internet.
Do you love the internet?
I love the internet.
That's my life. With no qualms, just the internet.
We love you, internet.
Thank you for making our lives easier.
Thank you for making our life possible.
I know. And Rory, tell us, which proposition do we usually use with the internet?
Is it in the internet at on?
It is on the internet.
Online, on the internet.
Websites on the internet.
Look at the internet on your phone.
So, we go online and we look at the information on the internet.
The listener is always on a very nice grammar structure Rory used.
I've never really thought about it.
When did you start using the internet?
Just like, come on.
I don't know. Do people record these things?
In the diary, it's like, 1895.
That's when I started using the internet.
And then the listener, a far more advanced grammar structure, it must have been when I was 11.
So, probably I started using the internet when I was 11, but I'm not sure.
But it's probable, probably, like maybe like 80%.
So, Rory says, it must have happened when I was 11.
Okay. Yes. I see two band nine.
I'm glad you picked up on that because it must have been for logical deduction.
Oh, I love it. Yeah, you can say that probably it was when I was 11, but it's boring, the listener.
Ooh, it must have been when I was 11.
Nice. And then Rory used a phrasal verb to be hooked up to the internet.
We had it hooked up to the internet.
Oh, yeah. So, if we had it done with someone else did it for us, because back in those days, you needed, I think, a telephone engineer to do that.
So, if you have something hooked up to the internet, like it is connected to something.
So, my computer was hooked up to the internet.
Or I had my computer hooked up to the internet.
I paid certain people, they came to my home, and they connected my computer to the internet.
Very important difference in the use of prepositions here, because hooked up to the internet is a phrasal verb.
But you could be hooked on the internet, which means you are addicted to the internet.
You could be hooked on drink or drugs or the internet.
It all means that you're addicted to it.
I'm hooked on the internet means I'm addicted to the internet, I can't stop using it.
Which verb do we use when we say I use the internet?
Oh, gosh, there's lots of verbs for using the internet.
Access the internet, browse the internet, and that is the one I used.
Yeah, I usually browse the internet.
I go online every waking minute of my life.
So, when I'm not asleep, I'm online.
And a very nice phrase is an internet free day.
Here we use n, which is not about the internet, it's about day.
So, a day free from the internet can become an internet free day.
Rory, give us a sentence.
Well, here it was. I can't remember the last time I had an internet free day.
But in general, I don't have internet three days.
So, here we've turned the word internet into an adjective with the word free, meaning out.
What else can be free?
Sugar free. Sugar free.
Yes. Alcohol free beer.
So, anytime we don't have something that's, we expect to be there.
Internet free, sugar free.
It's not the problem free world.
When you talk about your habits.
So, it's my habit to use the internet every day.
You can say, I am used to browsing the internet in the evening.
Okay. Or I'm used to looking at the information on the internet.
So, I am used to doing something.
It's my habit. So, here Rory told us, like, today we are so used to just looking at screens.
So, we are used to browsing the internet every day.
And then a nice idiom from dawn until dusk.
Pretty much all day long.
From the beginning of the day to the end of the day.
The internet influences people.
Or you can say the internet affects people.
Or has an influence on people.
We can also use it as a verb to influence somebody.
No proposition. So, the internet influences people.
And people put on certain information on the internet.
The internet incites people to take all kinds of actions.
A nice verb, to incite.
Yes. So, that's like to encourage in a negative way.
You can incite violence or incite hatred.
So, it's usually about a negative thing.
Can I use it like the internet incites me to donate money to charity?
I mean, it was a bad charity.
But if it's a charity, it's usually good.
So, no, not really.
No. Yeah. So, usually about something unpleasant, violent, so negative.
Like, it incited hatred.
Okay. Like, encouraged hatred.
Insight revolution.
Yeah. Or kind of these ads incited public opinion against the government.
Could you give us another example with insight?
Well, people frequently get incited to violence by things they see on the internet.
Another phrasal verb is miss out.
And we may have the fear of missing out when I'm afraid, I'm scared that I've missed out on some bargains, on some deals, on some discounts, because I need to buy things at a good price.
So, I hope I have this fear of missing out.
Not learning about something.
Not reading the news.
Not using the internet.
Not checking all my social media.
How can we use it in a sentence?
The fear of missing out.
If people are on social media too much, they can suffer the fear of missing out, because they see people having all of these fun times that they don't get to participate in.
Roi, tell us, how did you paraphrase the thing that the internet is bad for my health?
What did you say? In a benign kind of way.
Oh, okay. Did you mean it's detrimental to my health?
Yeah, but you didn't say detrimental.
You've used it as a noun.
Yes, I said it's a detriment to my health.
But that just means it's bad for my health.
Exactly. Normally, we say it's detrimental to my health.
It's like bad. It's negative.
But we can also use it as a noun.
Detriment. It's rather formal, which means harm or damage.
Without detriment to your health.
And usually too. Detriment to my health.
What other things can be a detriment to your health?
Alcohol. Going for a walk inside a volcano.
No, come on. A volcano is okay.
Perfectly normal human behavior for Maria.
Exactly. I've been inside volcanoes many times, so it's quite cool.
And you can feel volcanoes breathing, you know?
Like this. No, no joking.
That sounds absolutely terrible.
Yeah, like a dinosaur ready to attack.
That's enough of the funny noises from Maria.
Thank you very much for listening.
No, no, no. We are not done yet.
An addict. Okay, so if a person becomes an addict, like addicted to the internet, it's detrimental to our health.
When usually we get distracted by things online.
Yeah, to get distracted by ads, videos, social media.
The last question is very interesting.
Like, what would you do without the internet?
Come on. Like, we would die.
We would not be here.
Life would not be worth living.
Can you imagine, dear listener, have you ever been to a place without the internet, when your phone is like a brick?
Like, you can't do anything with your phone.
But now, you know, people have started creating these places without any connection.
Like, for travelers, for people to relax.
And actually, more and more people are seeking these places without any connection.
Could we say there are internet free zones?
Yes. An internet free existence.
People are looking for internet free existence.
Dear listener, hmm, missed about you, no?
Please don't make it about you, because you need to listen to this podcast.
A very nice phrase, life would be turned completely upside down.
Okay, when you turn it upside down.
So, if I take you, dear listener, your body, and I put your head on the floor and your feet up, I would turn you upside down.
So, without the internet, my life would be turned completely upside down.
It would not be normal.
I would be pretty isolated.
Okay, alone. Isolated from everybody.
Like, on a desert island.
And we use would, I would be, it would be difficult, because we are imagining.
Because now, like, hopefully, you have the internet, right?
Like, most people. Do most people on this planet have the internet, Rory?
I think so. I think so, yeah.
Okay. Well, we can, we can, we can find a site.
How many people? Oh, wow, maybe not everybody.
No, but most. I select most people.
5 .45 billion internet users worldwide, according to Google, which is 67 .1 % of the global population.
Okay. Okay, so more than a half.
That's crazy. I thought it was more than 67%, though.
It should be. Like, I mean, why, why do these other people not have internet access?
That's crazy. No, but like, people live in villages, so maybe they just don't need internet.
Okay. Oh, if I lived in a village, I would definitely need the internet.
No offense to village dwelling people.
Okay, dear listener.
So just remember that the human mind is like internet explorer.
There are at least nine tabs open, three of them are frozen, and there is no clue where the music is coming from.
Ah, did you get that?
Did you get the joke?
I didn't get that at all because I don't use internet explorer.
No, but like, if you use, what is internet explorer?
What is it? It's a web browser.
Yeah. If, for example, the human mind is like Google, there are at least 20 tabs open, or maybe like 50 tabs open, like half of them are frozen.
They're loading. And there is no clue where the music is coming from.
So there's some ads running, and it's kind of like the music is coming from somewhere.
So the joke is that here we're comparing the human mind to Google or internet explorer, or I don't know, Yahoo, like whatever search engine you're using.
Ha ha ha ha ha. Very funny.
It is hilarious. Moving swiftly on.
Thank you very much for listening, dear listener.
That's all from us.
Bye. Rory, when did you start using the internet?
I've never really thought about it before, but it must have been around the time I was 11 or 12, or around about that age, when we bought our first computer and had it hooked up to the internet then.
Not that I did much with it.
I would usually just browse and chat to other people using that.
How often do you go online?
Probably just about every day now.
Actually, I can't remember the last time I had an internet free day, to be honest with you.
We're so used to just looking at screens from dawn until dusk nowadays, or at least I am.
How does the internet influence people?
Well, I'm not sure the internet itself does anything to influence people in a particular direction, but the things people put on there definitely do.
They could encourage them to buy things through the fear of missing out, or incite them to take all kinds of actions by exposing them to, well, all kinds of incendiary content, really.
Do you think you spent too much time online?
I mean, how do you define too much?
I lie on so much that it's a detriment to my health, I wouldn't say so.
Although, that is what an addict would say, I suppose.
However, objectively speaking, I still manage to get all my jobs done for the day, and I'm not usually too distracted by things on there.
So I think my time online is pretty reasonable, to be honest.
What would you do without the internet?
Life would be turned completely upside down for me.
I run my classes on there and communicate with my friends and family and students and colleagues, like with email or just messaging apps.
So without the internet to help me to do all of those things, I'd be pretty isolated and I'd actually have a lot more work to do.
It's actually quite scary to think about.
