Context: Shireen is about to graduate from the Bayside Prep School in Tampa, Florida, USA and enjoys publick speaking. This is a talk that she gave to an audience of students from her school. It would be great if you were a female speaker from North America. Natural speed please. It would be really great if you could help me out. Thank you so much! It is for a listening comprehension for 9th-graders.
Hi everyone!
I want you to raise your hand if you’ve gone for more than an hour today without looking at your phone. I’m Shireen and I used to be addicted to my cell phone. Look around you. How many hands do you see? From this little experiment it’s clear we’re addicted to our phones.
At exam time we would normally be studying, right? Didn’t you use to worry about end of semester grades coming up? All of that stress ... you know how it is. I used to spend my days texting, tweeting and scrolling. I wouldn’t eat, let alone study. And then, at night, my friends would ping me right and left, all of them worried that they were going to fail. So I decided to do something about it.
I cleaned my room. No, not my bedroom. That stayed as messy as ever! But I did clean a room – my digital room. And you know what I found out? That it is definitely possible to control it instead of it controlling me.
I also challenged myself to get off social media for a week. It changed my life. No joke. The first couple of days, it did feel strange. I only communicated in person, so in the evenings I spent much more time doing homework and watching movies, and I was more focused and alert. And then I got used to it. My friends started putting down their phones when they hung out with me. I started looking around at my environment, noticing things, feeling things. It really did change my life!
Under no circumstances do I expect you to stop using social media forever, so I came up with NEW RULES for using our devices wisely, and here they are:
• Allow yourself only three apps and delete the apps that you use the most (I know ... it’s hard!).
• Go grayscale!
• Don’t take your phone to the school cafeteria or restroom.
• Remove notifications and turn off your phone’s sound during times you know you shouldn’t be on social media or shouldn’t be disturbed.
• Charge your phone and laptop anywhere but in your bedroom.
• Make sure you are seeing your friends instead of texting them.
• Go on dates instead of flirting online.
Now, I challenge you to stay off social media for one week, just like I did! I’ll call it SHIREEN’S CLEAN TEEN CHALLENGE. At the end of the week, share your experiences (the highs and lows) at our next assembly. Our principal agreed to give a prize to whoever can show no social media use for a week. All the details are on our school website. Happy unplugging
