Interesting Social Media Stories

Reading II: Interesting Social Media Stories

A. Match the words with their meanings.

Answer:

a. lip-syncing: to silently mouth the words along with a song or some other recording

b. platform: a website that serves as a base from which a service is provided

c. pandemic: the worldwide spread of a new disease

d. overwhelm: to have a strong emotional effect on somebody

e. somersaulting: turning over completely in the air

f. accumulate: to get more and more over a period of time

g. voicemail: a phone message recorded by someone when you do not answer their call

h. sanctuary: a place where birds or animals can live and be protected

B. Complete the sentences below with the correct information from the text.

Answer:

a. The text is about the positive results brought by social media.

b. Nathan Apodaca was gifted a truck of his favourite drink because he was drinking Ocean Spray cranberry juice in his viral video.

c. Charlie's birthday became more special than expected because of a post on Facebook.

d. If there were no social media, people would have no idea about the somersaulting of the two school children.

e. Matt Nason's Twitter page 'We Rate Dogs' raises funds for the help of dogs.

f. The social media platform Twitter was used for the rescue of the hawk.

C. Answer these questions.

Answer:

a. What did Nathan Apodaca record in his video? Ans: Apodaca recorded a video of himself skating, drinking and lip-syncing.

b. Was a truck of Ocean Spray a much-deserved reward for Nathan Apodaca? Why? Ans: Yes, a truck of Ocean Spray was a much-deserved reward for Nathan Apodaca because it was his favourite drink and his video went viral.

c. How did social media help Charlie celebrate her birthday? Ans: Social media helped Charlie celebrate her birthday by bringing her cards and parcels from people around the world.

d. What was $700 spent on? How did Matt collect the money? Ans: $700 was spent on buying a wheelchair for a dog. Matt collected the money through his 'We Rate Dogs' Twitter page.

e. How was the hawk in New York rescued? Ans: The hawk in New York was rescued with the help of Twitter; people shared information and coordinated the rescue through the platform.

D. Share an interesting social media story that you have read or heard.

Answer:

An honest man tried his luck in every business by taking a loan from the bank. He worked hard for twenty years but could not get success from any business. Being depressed, he wrote his long and sorrowful story on Facebook. People took pity on him and they cleared his bank loan within a day or two. He thanked all the people who donated money to him the next day.

Grammar II

A. Study the following pairs of sentences below. What differences do you notice in them?

Answer:

The difference is in the use of causative verbs. In the first sentence of each pair, the subject causes something to be done (by someone else). In the second sentence, the subject causes someone to do the action. For example, "I had my television fixed" means I arranged for someone to fix it; "I had a technician fix my television" means I got the technician to do the fixing.

B. Complete the sentences below with the correct form of verbs in brackets.

Answer:

a. I don't let my children play video games.

b. The police made him pay for the damage he caused.

c. Ram is having his house painted next weekend.

d. Ram got her boyfriend to buy her a ring.

e. Ram gets me to deliver the grocery every weekend.

f. Please try not to make her cry.

g. This quiz can make you understand causative verbs better.

h. Ram never has people tell her what to do.

i. My friend got me to help her with her CV.

j. I had a plumber fix the plumbing this morning.

k. I had my hair trimmed once a month.

l. After the party, I was made to wash all the dishes.

C. Imagine you were in a holiday camp last year. What were you made or let to do there? Write a few sentences using 'have', 'get' and 'make', etc.

Answer:

Actually I had no plan to go to a city last month. Some of my friends visited and posted many photos on social media. They talked much about the beauty of the place. This made me visit as soon as I could. I had my bags packed and had the tickets booked. I got my mother to manage the hotel for a couple of days. I visited for four days and returned. What an unplanned visit!

Writing II

Many people believe that social networking sites such as Facebook and TikTok have negative impacts on both individuals and society while others believe that they have connected people globally. What do you think? Write an essay expressing your view on the impacts of social media.

Answer:

Impacts of Social Media

Social media is an integral part of people's lives these days. People socialize and interact with others in their day-to-day life—be it their family, friends, colleagues, or even strangers. The age of writing letters is gone, when one had to wait for days before receiving an answer. Even though telephone calls and emails are still in use, people find social media more efficient sometimes.

If we look at the positive aspects of social media, we find numerous advantages. People use social media for multiple reasons like seeking employment, finding romance, or getting advice. Social media has also proven to be a very useful tool for education. Other than that, social media strengthens the bonds between loved ones. It is because of social media that distance is not a barrier anymore for reaching out. Social media is a great platform for young budding artists to showcase their talent for free to a huge audience. What social media provides us is that it allows companies to promote their brands. Social media has become a hub for campaigning and advertising, along with offering companies a great platform for connecting with their customers.

Apart from the various attractive features that often set trends, social media also helps in empowering youth and people of other age groups. Like-minded people form a network among themselves by creating or joining social groups or pages where they share content of similar interests and interact with each other.

Despite having so many advantages, social media is also often said to be one of the most harmful elements in society. Social media can lead to grave consequences if not used carefully. Social media invades the privacy of people like no other form of communication did before. Often children and people who over-share on social media fall prey to predators like bullies and hackers. The mental health of people is affected significantly because of cyber-bullying on social media. Addiction to social media is a serious matter of concern that many youths face. It leads to an increase in anxiety, hampering of studies, and, most importantly, a waste of time. Social media has also been responsible for creating communal rifts and misunderstanding among many individuals. Many positive and peace-loving minds are poisoned because of the spread of fake news on social media.

Hence, as responsible people, we should use social media with good intentions rather than misusing it.