IELTS essay: Is television a better source of information than traveling?

Essay topic

Some people think that traveling helps us to gain knowledge, but others believe that TV and internet are better sources of knowledge and information. Discuss both views and give your own opinion.

Sample response

There is no denying the fact that traveling helps us to gain knowledge. People who have traveled extensively tend to be a whole lot more knowledgeable than people who have lived all their lives in one place. That is probably because traveling exposes us to various experiences and experiences make us wiser.

Of course, traveling is not the only means of acquiring knowledge. With the advent of television and internet, we can now access all the information from the comforts of our home. Television programs allow people to go through a virtual tour of the whole universe. The truth is that people no longer have to step outside their home to explore the world and gain knowledge.

This, however, doesn’t necessarily mean that traveling has lost its significance. In fact, the number of people who travel are steadily on the rise. Interestingly, nearly all of them have access to television and internet. Despite having access to these modern means of information, people still travel and that is clearly an indication that traveling has not lost its popularity. In fact, television prompts people to travel further. They watch interesting places on TV and then decide to travel to those places.

The best thing about traveling is that it allows us to experience things first hand. And knowledge gained through experience is not forgotten easily. Of course, we can’t visit all the countries in the world just for the sake of gaining knowledge. If knowledge acquisition is our goal, we need to make use of all available sources of information including TV, internet and newspapers.

In conclusion, knowledge can be gained through different sources. It is not possible to say that knowledge gained through one source is better than knowledge gained through another source. In the olden days, reading and traveling were the most popular means of gaining knowledge. They are still important. But now other sources of information are also becoming more and more popular.