IELTS Plus: Episode 77 - The Internet

Good day everyone and welcome back to the IELTS plus English podcast where today we're going to talk all about the internet. I think it's a somewhat easy topic today, the internet, because it's so relatable. But as you know, it does come up in the IELTS exam. We certainly see questions about the internet, social media. e-commerce, all of these things come up. Now I have covered a lot of these topics separately. So today we'll really focus on the internet and websites. So yeah, I'm...

Quite looking forward to this. And I think we'll keep this episode pretty simple. We're a little bit longer episode last week. And I know I have a lot to talk about next week. So today we'll keep it simple. Now, as always. I tell you what, this list of language is tough, tougher than usual because there's a lot of things related to hacking and, you know, spam. So we've got spam.

cybersecurity, phishing, malicious. These words are tough, but if you can get comfortable with them, you can use them in other subjects such as social media. And of course, they are great topic-specific vocabulary. And as I always tell you, this is available in the IELTS Plus Total Speaking textbook, which is on www.britplus.net. And I will give you a quick student question, and it's one that I'm genuinely curious about. Simply describe your favorite website.

describe your favorite website um just tell me about it Why do you spend time there? What do you do on there? This is a question that will come up later today that I will have to cover. So recommend your favorite website to me. And let's get straight into part one, question one. What do you use the internet for? I use the internet for...

A number of things. Of course, browsing, reading the news, social media, e-commerce. I go on e-commerce platforms a lot. Emails. A big part of my... and my morning routine is going through my emails, checking for spam and malicious content, which, by the way, is... quite tricky nowadays. These hackers and the people that create this spam have various methods for hooking you. But yeah, that's a big part of my morning routine.

Okay, next question. Do you think you spend too much time on the internet? I would say no. I honestly, I spend a lot of my time working. I do use the internet a lot. Of course I do. I use a lot of platforms related to AI nowadays that have AI. So I use the internet so much. But in my free time, I'm in the gym. I read books. I do try to do activities that keep me off the internet. So on the whole, my balance is reasonable.

Oh, well, there you go. Part one is done. Nice and easy. So we'll go to part two. Two minutes are on the clock now. Today's part two question is... Describe a website that you visit often. There you go. There's the student question today. Of course, there's a number I could talk about, but let's talk about one that perhaps you don't know or perhaps you're not so familiar with. So two minutes are on the clock.

And my time starts now. I'd like to tell you about Reddit.com. Reddit.com. I first came across Reddit maybe... 12 or 13 years ago. And I think I came across it through a hobby, that my hobby, perhaps I searched in Google and... one of the forums on Reddit popped up. I came onto Reddit and this was at the time that the website was exploding in popularity. It's one of the biggest websites in the world, most popular.

And at that time, I started surfing through other forums and the main page. And I realized that this is a great website with lots of content. Of course, lots of... spam and malicious content as well, but certainly worth spending time on. So let me tell you a little more about Reddit. As I said, it's basically a collection of forums and people share images, videos, various things. There's a lot of discussion.

People gravitate to the forums that they enjoy. So for me, that might have been at that time when I first came across it, exercise, cooking. recommendations, things like that, which is still what I use today. As I said, there is a lot of malicious content on there. There's certainly a lot of trolls.

That's kind of an issue when you want to talk about something you care about and then you get someone make a nasty comment just because they're a troll. But I suppose that's inevitable with any internet website. For me personally, it's such a useful resource because for cooking, for example, I can find some great recipes from people. There you go. Time's up. Okay.

I'm happy with that. Very typical case where I got to the opinion section of my structure and the time cut out, which I'm perfectly fine with. In the exam, you might be asked to... You might be able to finish your sentence. And sometimes they will ask you a follow-up question. which kind of feels like this in between of part two and part three, but it absolutely happens. I've had the feedback from students. So be ready for that. And I'll just mention this briefly.

And I know I've done it before, but of course, in this podcast, we're drilling these questions and you can go on the internet, you can find all these questions, which is great. And you can prepare yourself as much as possible. But as was the case for my student recently, you know, he got a couple of questions he was expecting and some topic areas he was comfortable with, but then the...

The examiner just kept asking follow-up questions and follow-up questions. And it felt like a very natural conversation you'd have with your friend in the coffee shop, which is a good thing in a way. you could feel a bit more comfortable. But on the other hand, if you keep getting follow-ups, it's hard to give such a structured answer. Be mentally ready for that and perhaps find ways to practice with practice partners or your teacher to ensure that you are prepared for follow up questions.

Let's move to part three. And the first question is, how has the Internet affected the way people work? Well, of course, I mean, we're talking about a technology that came out. decades ago so it's affected you know had a huge effect on the way people communicate um you're now able to surf the internet anywhere or use the internet anywhere, send emails. So we have this new concept, I guess, called a digital nomad.

A digital nomad is someone who can work from anywhere and they move frequently. Maybe they spend a month in Thailand, a month in Vietnam, a month in Korea. But because of the internet, they are able to... run their business without any issue um so of course you've got to be careful running your business online with things like cyber security but uh the internet has opened up a lot of

for people to work remotely. Next question. How has the internet influenced the way we shop? Well, it's a somewhat similar question to the... or a similar answer to the previous answer. But I suppose what we can talk about is the ease of shopping and therefore issues that have come up with shopping addiction and things like that.

It's so easy to go shopping on these platforms now. For me, you know, I just go on my phone and I open an app using the internet, of course, and I just press a few buttons and it arrives the next day. That's wonderful, but problematic because it means that definitely I buy more. Because of the internet, there are very few hurdles. to any activity such as shopping and working as we discussed and i think that yeah life gets more convenient

But that can lead to other issues, like I mentioned. Okay, not a great answer there. I think I've got to be a bit more structured. So let's see how we do in the last question. Do you think the internet is making people more isolated? I think that... I mean, the internet allows us things like social media and... I talked about e-commerce and things like that. Let's talk about social media first. Yes, you are able from your house, you are able to connect with anyone in the world. You can...

Look at people's lives. You can show your life. But perhaps that means you don't need to connect with people in person as much as you used to. Certainly in South Korea, and I think it's the case in England as well, we talk about the loneliness epidemic. where more and more people, including the younger generation, it's not really one generation, it's the younger, the older, they're spending less time with each other and more time alone.

And I think that that's a good proof that the internet is causing people to become less sociable in person. Okay, I was happy with that.

Just notice, sometimes I say to you during the podcast, I say, ah, that's not a great answer. I'm not so happy with that. Because sometimes I answer and it's just not a great... structure and logic running through it i'm just adding ideas that can be fine by the way But whenever you feel like you're getting a little bit lazy with the structure, just bring yourself back to, like I did there, direct answer, one or two details.

and then a specific example and that will just get you back on track and it was a nice logical answer lots of depth a variety of language so Just be self-aware like I am in the podcast. I try to be. I try to make comments about how I feel about the previous answer. So just be self-aware and always try to bring yourself back to the structure. And that is everything I'll talk about today. We've done the internet. Let's meet next Monday to talk about time.

I mentioned earlier, I took a look at this topic in advance. Okay, time is coming up. Definitely, that's going to be a longer episode and there's going to be lots of things to talk about. Have a lovely week. Enjoy the spring weather if it is spring. I know I have quite a lot of listeners in Brazil and Argentina, which I suppose it will be fall for you. But here, as you can see, I'm wearing my polo shirt.

It's getting warmer. Spring is here. The flowers are blooming. So wherever you are in the world, have a lovely week and I'll see you next week to talk about time.