SPEAKING EXTRACURRICULAR ACTIVITIES—SMAPTA

JANUARY 19TH, 2024

PRE-LISTENING ACTIVITY
Warming up activity or Brainstorming. Each group is given one question.
1. Would it be a big problem for you if your cell phone was lost or stolen?
2. How often do you turn your cell phone off?
3. How do you feel if you leave the house without your cell phone?
4. Do you turn off your phone before going to bed? Why or why not?

TRANSCRIPT OF THE VIDEO

Did you know that 80% of children check their phones every five minutes? Crazy, right? Hi,
everyone. My name is Tanner Walton, and today I'm going to be talking to you about cell phone
addiction. Now, I may have an addiction myself, but that doesn't mean I can't talk about it. In fact,
who knows it better than me?
There are many people with addictions to different things, but in my opinion, cell phone addiction
is the number one issue. Now, hold on a second. I'm sure many of you are thinking, "That's not
me. I'm not addicted." Now, take a second to think about how many times a day you use your
phone or just check it. What happens to you when you lose your phone? Are you calm and settled,
or do you freak out? There are actually people who have a panic attack. It's called nomophobia, or
as I personally like to call it, "no no phone obeah." It is when you panic if you don't have your
phone in your pocket or can't find it. I've seen this happen on many occasions in our house, but
don't feel alone. In fact, there are 1.5 billion people in China, and many of them are suspected to
be addicted to technology. That is almost three-quarters of Canada's population. It is so crazy that
parents are putting their children into institutions to detoxify them from technology. But they are
not the only ones having this problem. It's happening in Britain, Spain, and several other countries,
and I believe that these detox centers will soon be in Canada.
Now, the big question is, why are people so addicted? Well, here's my answer. Take social media,
for example. Every single time you post a photo, let's say, in a matter of 10 seconds, you get 4
likes. Well, those 4 likes may be small, but it affects your mind in a huge way. Those 10 seconds
of happiness send a message to your brain saying, "I want more." So then you post another photo
and another photo just to see how many likes you get. Now you are spending every five minutes
of your day checking to see if someone liked your photo, even if that someone is from across the
world and you've never met them before. That's, like, a pretty big waste of a day to me.
But it's not just kids I'm talking about; it's adults too. It's like people don't talk to people. Have you
ever been to a restaurant, and two people aren't on a date? They don't even look at each other; they
are too busy on their devices talking to someone else or screenshotting their dinner and sending it
to someone that isn't even there. "Wow, a nice date night. Great spending time with you and your
phone." It's like we live in a virtual world where we can't even feel comfortable with the people
we love. We are always looking at or thinking about what other people are doing.
There is another aspect of this attachment to technology. We don't even talk to each other in the
same household. For instance, some families text each other in the same house. Why don't they
just talk to each other? Is it too far away to go up and down three floors? But hey, we still have a
generation of people who use the landline to communicate. I swear every time our phone rings at
home, I know exactly who it is: telemarketers or my 70-year-old grandparents. They just learned
how to use a phone. They get mad at us if we don't want to talk for a long time about horses or the
farmyard or things that they did way back in the 1900s. But we have more important things to do
with our time, like go on our cell phones. We don't have a lot of things to talk about, but hey, they
can text us, and we'll answer right away. We are available; we just don't want to talk. Okay, okay,
there is something seriously wrong with this. I admit it.
"Hey, hey, what's up? Yeah, oh sorry, I'm actually a bit busy right now. Can I call you back?"
That's embarrassing. So sorry about that. This is another common problem of today; it's called
phubbing. It is a word used to describe when people pay more attention to their device than the
people right in front of them. Has that ever happened to you?
Sometimes when I'm not allowed to take my phone to school or I forget it, my day is drastically
different. Imagine going to school to see all your friends, and everyone is on their device talking
to someone else on social media or playing video games. It's like we've forgotten about the human
connection. It is pretty hard to put your phone down, especially when everyone around you has
one. Speaking of human connection, did you know that there are actually signs set up at my local
hockey rink to tell people to put their phone away so they can pay attention to their own kid playing
hockey?
But there's another aspect; it's the sleep. People even sleep with their devices next to them. They
use them for alarm clocks or sleep apps to help them get to sleep. It's a chronic problem
everywhere. Did you know that the blue light actually affects the release of melatonin in your
brain? You need this to tell your brain to rest. That is why some people are so high-energy before
bed. Having your phone beside your bed has side effects like digital eye strain, increased illnesses,
and even car accidents due to lack of sleep. People even drive with their cell phones. They are too
busy worrying about what someone has to say on their phone rather than paying attention to the
road. And I do think we have reason to worry, as cell phones are responsible for a lot of car
accidents. Here's a quick fact: did you know that driving 90 kilometers an hour reading a five-
second text message is equivalent to traveling a football field blindfolded?
Wrapping things up, as I think we could all talk about many other problems with cell phones, the
one thing that I have found is that we really need to be connecting more with each other. One of
the best times in my life so far was going away to summer camp last year at Rock Ridge Canyon,
a tech-free camp. Kids were told to leave all devices at home; it was not an option. And yes, I'll
admit it, it was tough to give it up for a week, but I'm glad I did, as I had the chance to go on some
amazing adventures and make some real human connections with people I still talk to today. I
mean, I'm myself, and of course, so if you take anything away from what I just said, it would be
my advice to you is to pay attention to the little things that make you happy. Enjoy the moments
that are right in front of you. And as Steve Jobs once said, "Your time is limited, so don't waste it
living someone else's life." Thank you.

POST-LISTENING ACTIVITY
In a group of three, discuss at least 3 of these questions below. Make some notes and prepare for
the podcast show.
NOTE: Each group should discuss at least 3 questions.
1. How do you feel about using your phone a lot, like Tanner talked about? Can you think of
times when you use your phone a whole bunch?
Example: During the pandemic especially when I had to join online class, I spent the whole
day and the whole night using my phone.

2. Tanner mentioned that getting likes on social media can make us happy for a short time.
Do you agree with him? How do you think social media makes us feel?

3. Tanner used a word called "phubbing" to describe when people pay more attention to their
phones than to the people around them. Have you seen people doing this? How do you
think it affects friendships?

4. Tanner shared a story about going to a camp where no one was allowed to use phones. Can
you think of a time when you couldn't use your phone, either because you chose not to or
you had to? How did it make you feel?

5. Tanner talked about using phones before sleep and how it might not be good. Do you use
your phone before bedtime? What do you think about the idea that using phones a lot can
affect our health?

REFLECTION
Confidence Bubbles
Refect on your progress at the end of each meeting. Do you think you have made good progress in
your speaking performance? Draw bubbles of different sizes to show how confdent you are that
you have made good progress and will continue to do so. You can trace the outline of your biggest
coin to show you are very confdent, a medium size coin to show you are a little confdent and the
smallest to show you are not confdent at all. Write the date of your refection inside the bubble.
My Confdence Bubbles in Speaking English