Digital Literacy - A Good Influence
Digital Literacy - A Good Influence
In this episode of the Premier Skills English Podcast, Jack's sister has a daughter who is approaching her 13th birthday. She's going to be getting her first smartphone and so Jack ask Rowan for some advice about how to protect her.
The language focus is on vocabulary related to social media and the digital literacy focus is on understanding how to use social media to get the best information and content.
Transcript
Jack: Hello. My name’s Jack.
Rowan: And I’m Rowan.
Jack: Welcome to this week’s Premier Skills English podcast.
Rowan: In the Premier Skills English podcast, we talk about football and help you with your English.
Jack: We talk about all sorts of things, really. I mean, last week you and Rich were pretending to be pirates.
Rowan: That’s true, but it was Rich’s last week on the podcast.
Jack: Yes - and it was good fun. I hope you all enjoyed Rich’s new job fantasies last week. What do you think he’s going to do now, Rowan?
Rowan: I think he’ll probably go for the job in the circus. I can’t really see him as a James Bond type spy or a pirate captain.
Jack: I think you’re right. Quite a few of our listeners think that Rich will make a good spy. MoBeckham said he’ll be a successful spy because he’s smart and clever. Emmanuel Kwarteng also thinks he’ll be a good spy. Coreuser from Jordan however does not think he’ll be a good spy.
Rowan: No, but Hsn from Turkey thinks he’ll be successful in whatever job he chooses, which is a very nice thing to say.
Jack: Yes. And there are lots of really kind messages to Rich from people who are sad to see him leave. We are really going to miss him, but like all of the listeners who got in touch, we wish him well.
Rowan: What are we going to do without him?
Jack: I know.
Rowan: No, I mean today. What are we going to do today?
Jack: Right ... erm of course. Today ... So today, we’re going continue the series of podcasts we’ve been making about Digital Literacy.
Rowan: OK. So we made one podcast about functional skills and language you might need if you have a problem with a digital device.
Jack: And we made another about how to spot fake news.
Rowan: Yes. In that podcast we were trying to help Rich to stop being so gullible.
Jack: That was just a performance for the podcast, you know. Spotting fake news is a really important skill. There’s so much information online these days; if you don’t know how to evaluate it to see if you can trust it, then you might get hurt.
Rowan: Well, maybe. It’s certainly embarrassing if you find out you’ve been sharing something that’s not true. Today, we’re going to talk about something different. Did you see the news about the Facebook whistleblower?
Jack: I did. They have raised some interesting questions about the power of big social platforms. And we’re going to talk about one aspect of this today.
Rowan: In the roleplay, Jack is a bit worried about his niece who is about to get her first smartphone.
Jack: I ask Rowan for some advice and we talk about influence and influencers.
Rowan: But before we start the role-play, it’s time to look at last week’s football phrase.
Football Phrase
Jack: Every week we challenge you, our listeners, to work out our football phrase.
Rowan: We explain a word or phrase and you have to guess what it is. If you can work it out, write the word or phrase in the comments section.
Jack: We’re going to give you one more chance to guess now and then we’ll tell you the answer.
Rowan: Last week’s football phrase was free agent. This phrase describes a player who is not bound by a contract and so can join any team at any time. Clubs often sign free agents on short-term deals outside of the transfer window.
Jack: I thought that this one was quite difficult but lots of you got it right. Well done to Emmanuel from France who was the first with the correct answer.
Rowan: And congratulations to Mehmet Sisman, Hsn and Mobeckham from Turkey, Hayato from Japan, ArthurSandman from Brazil, Nebuwea Chizoba from Nigeria, Bagas from Indonesia, WSanta from Argentina, Thomassi from Hong Kong, AbdlRhman from Egypt, Emmanuel Kwarteng from Ghana and Mario Martinez and Gerardo94 from Cuba.
Jack: The correct answer to last week’s football phrase was free agent. We’ll have a new football phrase for you to guess at the end of the podcast.
Role-play
Jack: Now it’s time for this week’s role-play. This week the topic is social media and the impact it has on our lives.
Rowan: While you listen to the roleplay we want you to try to answer a question. The question is: Who is more worried about the effects of social media, me or Jack?
INT CAFE
Rowan: Hi Jack - How are you doing?
Jack: Rowan! Hi. I’m good, thanks. Actually, I’m really glad you’re here. I need your advice.
Rowan: Of course. What’s the problem?
Jack: OK. You know I have a niece?
Rowan: Yeah ...?
Jack: You see, my sister has asked me for some advice and I don’t know what to tell her. My niece is turning 13 this year and so my sister is getting her a phone.
Rowan: A smart phone?
Jack: Yes. Exactly.
Rowan: What do you mean exactly?
Jack: You know ... teenage girls and social media. My sister wants to know what I think and with all the stories in the news about how these things can be a dangerous influence for teenagers, I don’t know what to tell my sister.
Rowan: Yes - it’s a difficult question for a parent ... or an uncle.
Jack: So what do you think?
Rowan: I think it’s like everything in life. It can be good and it can be bad. It depends on how you use it.
Jack: But we never had this problem when we were growing up. There was no such thing as influencers when we were kids.
Rowan: No, but you must have had role-models. They were similar, weren’t they.
Jack: I suppose.
Rowan: In fact, it’s better these days. You can follow your heroes and role-models directly. Did you know that Cristano Ronaldo has over 450 million followers. Who do you follow?
Jack: I follow Arsenal’s official channels and the Premier League. And some vlogs about music and photography.
Rowan: And I bet you get lots of great information from these vloggers and blogs.
Jack: I know. I think that Facebook and Google’s algorithms work well for me. I also get loads of content from Reddit. I really like that you can subscribe to and unsubscribe from different topics and subreddits.
Rowan: Yeah. You need to be active and understand how it all works.
Jack: But I don’t understand. I mean ... I was reading an article about influencers on instagram and I hadn’t heard of any of them. I’m still not sure how some of them make money. I took a look at some of the pictures they share and it’s really not for me. As you say, you have to find the right people and topics to follow and subscribe to and then you’ll find content that interests you.
Rowan: So there’s your answer. You should tell your sister to help your niece to subscribe to topics that she’s interested in and to make sure she follows people who are going to be positive role models.
Jack: I think that’s good advice. Thanks Rowan.
Role-play feedback
Jack: Before the roleplay, we asked you a question. The question was: Who is more worried about social media? Me or Rowan.
Rowan: I think we are both a bit worried about the impact of social media, but in the role-play, Jack was more concerned than I was.
Jack: So this podcast is a bit different. We do want to focus on language as always, but we also want to focus on some of the problems of social media. These are new problems that have grown out of the way the internet works and are an important part of digital literacy.
Rowan: However, I think it’s important to recognise that these problems have come about as a side effect of social media and the internet. I still think that the internet offers more advantages than disadvantages to young people, you just need to know to use it responsibly.
Jack: We’re talking about influence today and three sorts of influence that can be positive and negative and we’ll try to explain the vocabulary that we used in the podcast as we go along.
Rowan: But first, we should make sure everyone knows what the word influence means.
Jack: Yes of course. Influence is a noun and a verb. The verb to influence means to change or affect what someone or something does. It’s used a lot to talk about what changes or affects children as they grow up. You can talk about the people that influenced you when you were growing up. These are the people that helped you when you had to decide what to study or what you wanted to do as a job, for example.
Rowan: The noun form influence is used to talk about the same thing. You can say that something is a good or bad influence on someone and in the past you can say that a person had a strong influence on you. My grandmother had a very strong influence on me when I was growing up.
Jack: The first sort of influence that we want to talk about are role-models. A role-model is a person that you admire, somebody that you copy, that you try to be like. On social media, some people are a bit like professional role models, they are called influencers and they use their popularity to persuade people to buy things.
Rowan: Who were your role-models when you were a kid, Jack?
Jack: Erm ... when I was little, I think my role-models were Michael Jackson and Crocodile Dundee.
Rowan: I’m not sure they were a very good influence.
Jack: No, but when I was a kid, they were really remote. You couldn’t interact with them like you can today.
Rowan: I think this is a good thing. My nephew is a massive fan of Cristiano Ronaldo. I think he’s a really good role-model in lots of ways. He follows him on social media.
Jack: To follow is an interesting verb. It used to mean to walk or travel behind someone, and go wherever they go. It still means that you can still follow your friends on a walk in the woods, but it’s more commonly used online.
Rowan: To follow someone online, you have to click on a button on their social media page. If you do this, you will get updates and content from that person whenever they post something online.
Jack: As well as following individuals, you can follow organisations. I said in the role-play that I follow Arsenal’s official channels. We use the word channel to talk about the different social media platforms. So official channels are the pages and profiles that are maintained by organisations. I follow Arsenal on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.
Rowan: You need to be careful though because there are sometimes unofficial channels as well and they can be a source of fake news. You need to make sure you follow the official channels.
Jack: To follow is very similar to the word subscribe. In the past, to subscribe meant to pay to receive a newspaper or magazine regularly. I had a National Geographic subscription for a few years when I was a teenager.
Rowan: I think that’s still the main meaning of the verb to subscribe but you can also subscribe to newsletters and companies when you give out your email address online. The negative form, to unsubscribe is probably used more often. I get loads of emails from companies that I have somehow, mostly by accident, subscribed to. I try to unsubscribe, to stop receiving the messages, but I still get so many.
Jack: The second sort of influence we want to talk about are google and facebook’s algorithms.
Rowan: The word algorithm is quite complicated. It means the set of rules that you can put into a computer to solve a problem. But more commonly than that, it means the way that facebook and google and lots of other online companies decide what content to show you.
Jack: When you search for something on google, the search engine does more than just look for the words that you have searched for. There is a set of rules that include where you live and all sorts of other information that google has stored about you to filter and present what google hopes is the best information for you.
Rowan: Facebook and twitter work in the same way. When you open these websites, you see news on your feed. This is selected for you based on the algorithm and the information these websites store about you.
Jack: So if you follow someone on line, you will start to see stories from them and also from people that are similar. So if you follow Cristiano Ronaldo, you may also see stories about other Manchester United players.
Rowan: I think some social media websites are watching everything you do online and so you have to be careful what you search for or your news feed might end up full of adverts for stuff you don’t like.
Jack: Can you think of any consequences of this sort of influence? This is a big topic that’s going to be in the news for a long time.
Rowan: What’s the third sort of influence?
Jack: So as well as role-models and the big social media algorithms, there is another sort of influence that worries me. However, this sort of influence has been around forever, social media has just made it a bit stronger. This is the influence of your friends and peers.
Rowan: When I was growing up, teachers would warn us about the dangers of peer pressure. Your peers are the people that are the same age as you. So this normally means your classmates and school friends.
Jack: When people around you are doing something, then you might feel pressure to do the same thing. I think that social media makes this worse because when you share things online, your friends can click on the like button and that makes people happy.
Rowan: It’s nice to be liked and to have people support you online. But this can add to the pressure to do things or to try to be like other people online. There has been some research that suggests that some teenagers are made unhappy because they are trying harder to fit in and get likes.
Jack: Yeah. And kids can be hard on each other. Some kids were picked on when I was at school and I hate to think what sort of abuse they might have received online. You have to be careful who you connect with online.
Task
Jack: Your task this week is to think about who has been the greatest influence in your life. What person, perhaps someone you know, perhaps a role model has had the biggest influence on you? How would your life be different without their influence? Leave your answers in the comments section on the page for this podcast or in the review section in Apple podcasts.
Football Phrase
Rowan: OK - our football phrase. So regular listeners will know that every week, we challenge you to work out a mystery football phrase.
Jack: This week’s football phrase is playing ******* *** *****. This is a style of attacking play that involves short passes to teammates who manage to find space behind the opposition midfielders and in front of the opposition defenders to probe the defence for weaknesses and spaces to attack. When a team plays in a 442 formation, you can talk about the 2 defenders as the defensive **** and the 4 in the middle are the midfield ****. Palace attacked Leicester by playing ******* *** *****, with short five-yard passes to try to find a way through to goal.
Rowan: If you know the answer to the football phrase, leave a comment on the page for this podcast on the Premier Skills English website. If you have a football phrase that you would like us to use in the podcast, just get in touch and let us know.
Jack: Before we finish we just wanted to say that we hope you found this podcast and the vocabulary useful and we hope all of you stay fit and healthy.
Rowan: Bye for now and enjoy your football.
Vocabulary
Social media and influence
In the roleplay, Jack and Rowan used lots of digital literacy vocabulary. Do you understand the word in bold?
Number 1
Jack: You know ... teenage girls and social media. My sister wants to know what I think and with all the stories in the news about how these things can be a dangerous influence for teenagers, I don’t know what to tell my sister.
Number 2
Jack: But we never had this problem when we were growing up. There was no such thing as influencers when we were kids.
Rowan: No, but you must have had role-models. They were similar, weren’t they.
Number 3
Rowan: In fact, it’s better these days. You can follow your heroes and role-models directly. Did you know that Cristano Ronaldo has over 450 million followers. Who do you follow?
Number 4
Jack: I follow Arsenal’s official channels and the Premier League.
Number 5
Jack: I know. I think that Facebook and Google’s algorithms work well for me.
Number 6
Rowan: So there’s your answer. You should tell your sister to help your niece to subscribe to topics that she’s interested in and to make sure she follows people who are going to be positive role models.
Number 7
Jack: I also get loads of content from Reddit. I really like that you can subscribe to and unsubscribe from different topics and subreddits.
Task
Who influenced you?
Your task this week is to think about who has been the greatest influence in your life.
What person, perhaps someone you know, perhaps a role model has had the biggest influence on you?
How would your life be different without their influence?
Share your responses in the comments section at the bottom of the page.
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Comments
14/12/2021
points
I've been influenced most by three persons: my father, Socrates, and myself.
14/12/2021 01:40
Liverpool
6562
I've been influenced most by three persons: my father, Socrates, and myself.
25/11/2021
points
Nice podcats.
I've improved my listening skills.
25/11/2021 22:19
Aston Villa
231
Nice podcats.
I've improved my listening skills.
30/10/2021
points
The Liverpool man is missed already
Hope he is safe and sound :)
Since I was a kids , I had a few people that had a big impact and a positive influence in my life and I really love and appreciate them a lot.
First , he was my grandfather from my mum's side as he was so generous and humorous. Then my biggest two influencers were David Beckham and Sir Alex Ferguson and on the music side , he was Eminem.
So I can say that my grandfather and Sir Alex Ferguson ( they look like each other btw ) were like my Godfathers
whereas David Beckham and Eminem are my role-models
People that I really look up to them and appreciate their talents and impact on me and millions
Especially Beckham has the most influence on me even my friends used to call me Beckham for a long time due to my football skills that resembles his. Without Beckham and Sir Alex , I wouldn't have loved Manchester United and Premier League the way I am today
Eminem also teaches me to rap since I was 10 so most people think I'm a native English speaker when they meet me for the first time :)
I respect all my role-models a lot and I love them all <3
30/10/2021 08:47
Manchester United
6536
The Liverpool man is missed already
Hope he is safe and sound :)
Since I was a kids , I had a few people that had a big impact and a positive influence in my life and I really love and appreciate them a lot.
First , he was my grandfather from my mum's side as he was so generous and humorous. Then my biggest two influencers were David Beckham and Sir Alex Ferguson and on the music side , he was Eminem.
So I can say that my grandfather and Sir Alex Ferguson ( they look like each other btw ) were like my Godfathers
whereas David Beckham and Eminem are my role-models
People that I really look up to them and appreciate their talents and impact on me and millions
Especially Beckham has the most influence on me even my friends used to call me Beckham for a long time due to my football skills that resembles his. Without Beckham and Sir Alex , I wouldn't have loved Manchester United and Premier League the way I am today
Eminem also teaches me to rap since I was 10 so most people think I'm a native English speaker when they meet me for the first time :)
I respect all my role-models a lot and I love them all <3
26/11/2021
points
I am back, MU Man. Keep on smiling!
26/11/2021 01:12
Liverpool
6562
I am back, MU Man. Keep on smiling!
21/10/2021
points
This is my First comment here
My role-model is the famous scientist Albert Einstein, he had a way of thinking I really admire but online i actually follow Egycology channel on Facebook .thanks
21/10/2021 02:56
Liverpool
23
This is my First comment here
My role-model is the famous scientist Albert Einstein, he had a way of thinking I really admire but online i actually follow Egycology channel on Facebook .thanks
17/10/2021
points
the phrase is '' through out lines ''
17/10/2021 18:24
Chelsea
2243
the phrase is '' through out lines ''
15/10/2021
points
I think this week football phrase is playing a one-two.
15/10/2021 02:31
Arsenal
12
I think this week football phrase is playing a one-two.
14/10/2021
points
The football phrase is: playing "******* *** *****".
14/10/2021 14:21
Manchester City
3
The football phrase is: playing "******* *** *****".
13/10/2021
points
Task
I’m not active on social media.I only follow a few official channels related to football.
The founder of our republic and our leader forever Atatürk.He struggled with many obstacles but achieved at last.
I don’t need role-model. I’ve enogh charisma-:) No need to be modest on this topic.
Additional info
The word “Algorithm” originated from medieval Latin “Algorismus” , a translation of the name of the muslim mathematician “Al-Khwārizm” who discovered this method.
Note
• I'd watched a short film about social media.A loneless lady was watching videos of her friends about their holiday or birthday party etc. All of them were looking very happy.In fact they were pretending to be. This lady fall into depression because she was unhappy. She goes a psychiatrist and he suggesther to make videos that she looks happy and send them to her friends. In the end problem solved by this method-:)
• When searching any topic on internet I realized that many we sites plagiarizing. Same material or information surfing the webs-:)
13/10/2021 12:56
Tottenham Hotspur
5552
Task
I’m not active on social media.I only follow a few official channels related to football.
The founder of our republic and our leader forever Atatürk.He struggled with many obstacles but achieved at last.
I don’t need role-model. I’ve enogh charisma-:) No need to be modest on this topic.
Additional info
The word “Algorithm” originated from medieval Latin “Algorismus” , a translation of the name of the muslim mathematician “Al-Khwārizm” who discovered this method.
Note
• I'd watched a short film about social media.A loneless lady was watching videos of her friends about their holiday or birthday party etc. All of them were looking very happy.In fact they were pretending to be. This lady fall into depression because she was unhappy. She goes a psychiatrist and he suggesther to make videos that she looks happy and send them to her friends. In the end problem solved by this method-:)
• When searching any topic on internet I realized that many we sites plagiarizing. Same material or information surfing the webs-:)
13/10/2021
points
Firstly, I miss Rich already...
Secondly, I wish I could hug you guys.
I've been listening this podcast since January 2019 when I first installed Spotify on my phone.
When I found it I listened all the previous and since then I've been listening every week.
I'm very poor, so I need to work a lot. I do not have much free time and that's why I never spent time to even come here on website.
But the last events made me emotional, so I've just come to the website for the first time in intention to see photos to associate faces to the voices I listen every week. Is that possible ?
Besides that I am now writing to thank you very much for your precious job and I won't be lying saying you are some of the people who work as role model or influencers for me / at least for my English.
Best Regards
Lian Lobo from Rio de Janeiro
13/10/2021 04:02
Wolverhampton Wanderers
1
Firstly, I miss Rich already...
Secondly, I wish I could hug you guys.
I've been listening this podcast since January 2019 when I first installed Spotify on my phone.
When I found it I listened all the previous and since then I've been listening every week.
I'm very poor, so I need to work a lot. I do not have much free time and that's why I never spent time to even come here on website.
But the last events made me emotional, so I've just come to the website for the first time in intention to see photos to associate faces to the voices I listen every week. Is that possible ?
Besides that I am now writing to thank you very much for your precious job and I won't be lying saying you are some of the people who work as role model or influencers for me / at least for my English.
Best Regards
Lian Lobo from Rio de Janeiro
13/10/2021
points
Hi Liam
Thanks for your kind words. I have shared them with Rich.
We miss him too.
Thanks again
Jack - The Premier Skills English Team
13/10/2021 11:04
Arsenal
560
Hi Liam
Thanks for your kind words. I have shared them with Rich.
We miss him too.
Thanks again
Jack - The Premier Skills English Team
13/10/2021
points
I have to confess that I do not have a role model, but I admire some character traits of different people. For instance, Ronaldo is a great player and I look up to him as a forward. Speaking of footballers, when I was a child there was a point in which I admired a goalkeeper. I would imagine myself catching the ball wearing a uniform while playing with my friends.
I cannot vouch for someone because it is complicated. I remember that I used to talk a lot about a professor of a certain university in a country that is not worth mentioning. He was my hero, and I watched many of his videos. However, a heartbreaking truth came out. He did an embarrassing mistake, and he appeared all over the news. The university decided to suspend him, and even all of his videos were deleted from the university's official site. We do not know everything about a person, so it is better to mention what things we like about someone instead of loving blindly that person.
A person that has great ideas is Sam Harris. I like a lot his content about meditation; however, I do disagree with some of his political views. I cannot consider him a role model, but I’m really into his meditation content. On the other hand, Einstein and Dirac are physicists who passed away a long time ago. Their work is outstanding. There are so many things that I admire about them, but I do not know everything about them for sure.
I share with Jack his concerns about social media. On the internet, there is definitely a deluge of fake news and bad influences for children. Of course, there is also good content, and we should encourage children to watch it. As far as I’m concerned, I think it is a good idea to supervise a child at least in the beginning.
I think I’m in the same boat with Jack, but I do not have control over my niece (she’s much younger, but she is already using the internet).
I use Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. However, I do not post pictures of myself or food. I just use them to read the news. I follow a lot of newspapers. I know that sites like Facebook are tracking us down and selling that information to other companies.
Finally, it is disastrous what peer pressure has made us. It is like people do not have the power to make decisions anymore. I suppose that teenagers that are right now studying at high school are experiencing peer pressure to watch the latest famous series “Squid Game”, for example. And tomorrow, there will be another series, movie, or jeans that they need to watch, otherwise, there will be other people who will pick on them.
13/10/2021 01:00
Manchester United
293
I have to confess that I do not have a role model, but I admire some character traits of different people. For instance, Ronaldo is a great player and I look up to him as a forward. Speaking of footballers, when I was a child there was a point in which I admired a goalkeeper. I would imagine myself catching the ball wearing a uniform while playing with my friends.
I cannot vouch for someone because it is complicated. I remember that I used to talk a lot about a professor of a certain university in a country that is not worth mentioning. He was my hero, and I watched many of his videos. However, a heartbreaking truth came out. He did an embarrassing mistake, and he appeared all over the news. The university decided to suspend him, and even all of his videos were deleted from the university's official site. We do not know everything about a person, so it is better to mention what things we like about someone instead of loving blindly that person.
A person that has great ideas is Sam Harris. I like a lot his content about meditation; however, I do disagree with some of his political views. I cannot consider him a role model, but I’m really into his meditation content. On the other hand, Einstein and Dirac are physicists who passed away a long time ago. Their work is outstanding. There are so many things that I admire about them, but I do not know everything about them for sure.
I share with Jack his concerns about social media. On the internet, there is definitely a deluge of fake news and bad influences for children. Of course, there is also good content, and we should encourage children to watch it. As far as I’m concerned, I think it is a good idea to supervise a child at least in the beginning.
I think I’m in the same boat with Jack, but I do not have control over my niece (she’s much younger, but she is already using the internet).
I use Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. However, I do not post pictures of myself or food. I just use them to read the news. I follow a lot of newspapers. I know that sites like Facebook are tracking us down and selling that information to other companies.
Finally, it is disastrous what peer pressure has made us. It is like people do not have the power to make decisions anymore. I suppose that teenagers that are right now studying at high school are experiencing peer pressure to watch the latest famous series “Squid Game”, for example. And tomorrow, there will be another series, movie, or jeans that they need to watch, otherwise, there will be other people who will pick on them.
13/10/2021
points
Hi Wilson2103
I agree with you. When you look up to someone, it is better to respect the ideas and what that person represents than the person themselves. There are lots of people I admire that are probably not much fun to be around. Ronaldo is an inspiration, but he's so strict about his food and lifestyle that I wouldn't want to go out to dinner with him. I think he must be quite intimidating in real life.
Thanks for sharing your ideas.
Jack - The Premier Skills English Team
13/10/2021 11:08
Arsenal
560
Hi Wilson2103
I agree with you. When you look up to someone, it is better to respect the ideas and what that person represents than the person themselves. There are lots of people I admire that are probably not much fun to be around. Ronaldo is an inspiration, but he's so strict about his food and lifestyle that I wouldn't want to go out to dinner with him. I think he must be quite intimidating in real life.
Thanks for sharing your ideas.
Jack - The Premier Skills English Team