Nowadays People Use Social Media To Keep In Touch With Others And Be Aware Of News | How To Write An Essay On This Topic

Nowadays people use social media to keep in touch with others and be aware of news. Do the advantages of this outweigh the disadvantages?

Here are some strategies for attempting this essay. You can also watch the video version of this lesson here.

As you can see, the question asks whether the advantages of using social media to connect with others and to receive news updates outweigh the disadvantages. Here the question itself implies that there are both advantages and disadvantages to this development. So, you cannot write that there are only advantages or only disadvantages. Instead what you have to do is to say whether there are more advantages than disadvantages.

Your opinion is yours and it can be anything. You can say that there are more advantages. Or you can say that there are more disadvantages. Or ou can say there are an equal number of advantages and disadvantages.

Clearly answer the given question in the introduction itself.

If you think there are more advantages, you can write something like this.

  • In my opinion, the merits of this development eclipse the demerits.

Or

  • I believe that the advantages of using social media to stay in touch with friends and family and to receive news and information overshadow the disadvantages.

Or

  • In my opinion, the downsides of this trend pale in comparison to the merits / upsides.

Now if you think disadvantages outweigh advantages, then you can write:

  • In my opinion, the demerits of this development eclipse / overshadow the merits.

Now what about the body paragraphs? What are the ideas you can include in this essay?

If you think advantages outweigh disadvantages, then in the first body paragraph, mention those advantages. Include as many points as you can. You don’t have to go into detail. Just mention them briefly.

Now in the second body paragraph discuss the downsides. There is an important thing to remember here. If you think advantages outweigh disadvantages, then you have to downplay the disadvantages. Don’t present them in such a way that they sound as important as the advantages. In this case, it is not possible to prove that the advantages outweigh the disadvantages. If you have the same number of points on both sides, then in the introduction itself write that advantages and disadvantages are of equal importance.

This is a mistake that I see a lot of students make. They will discuss the merits and demerits with equal passion and then claim that the merits or demerits outweigh the other. If both of them sound equally serious, how can you prove that one is of more importance than the other? So, keep this point in mind. If you think the advantages outweigh the disadvantages, highlight the advantages and downplay the disadvantages. Present the given disadvantages as something of little consequence. Another strategy is to offer simple solutions to the disadvantages to make them sound less serious.

Now if you think the disadvantages are of greater consequence, then highlight them and downplay the advantages.

So here are some points you can include in this essay.

Advantages

Distance is no longer a barrier. We can connect with friends and family living in any part of the world whenever we want. We can also make friends with people we have never met in life. We can share our news and photos with them.

Video calls over the internet are a whole lot cheaper than ISD calls. We can conduct virtual conferences online.

We can receive up to the moment information about happenings in part of the world.

Disadvantages

People are no longer interested in face to face interactions.

They have friends in all parts of the world, but they don’t know their neighbours.

Social media addiction can ruin relations.

As you can see these disadvantages are also serious. So, to prove that advantages outweigh disadvantages, you can offer some simple solutions to the disadvantages. For example, you can say that limiting the time spent on social media will help.

In the conclusion, restate the main points and express your opinion again.

Manjusha Nambiar

Hi, I'm Manjusha. This is my blog where I give IELTS preparation tips.