Full video

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do you think social media is good

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no

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just scroll past it it's not important

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it's just

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a bit of

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information in your news feed whether

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you agree with it or not just just move

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on it's sort of noticing when you when

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you start having those thoughts around

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like comparing yourself with other

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people they can be quite subtle but

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they're quite toxic

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there were people that i knew on there

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and i knew they didn't kind of lead

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these uh you know glamorous millionaire

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looking lifestyles but yet their photos

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seem to kind of dictate that or indicate

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that interesting um

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i just thought it's too fake you can

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snooze for 30 years yeah exactly and i

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do that

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advice yeah people who are posting you

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like them but you're just getting on my

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nose

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you just sneezing for 30 days

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i need to know it

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please please

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hello welcome to easy english

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so in this week's episode i went down on

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brighton beach to ask people's opinions

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on social media i also know how they use

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social media what they think is good and

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what's bad about social media and advice

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on what people should look out for and

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avoid when using social media apps

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before we get started

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please don't forget to like and

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subscribe here we go

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what do you use it for just like kind of

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posting videos with friends sending

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videos to like other people that i think

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are funny kind of just interacting with

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my friends

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i use um

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instagram and facebook i have got a

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twitter account but i don't really get

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it

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i think it's absolutely got its place

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like it's really really helped me to

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stay in contact with say friends that

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are on the other side of the world

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um that's sort of facebook that sort of

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thing

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um

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things like twitter i avoided for a long

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long long time and then joined recently

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and have created a really great network

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specifically around like teachers and

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education and writers and wellbeing

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because that's sort of my thing

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and i've joined instagram i think

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they've all got their like their place

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what social media platforms do you use

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uh so i use facebook uh and that is it

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that is it yeah yeah have you ever tried

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like say for instance tick tock or

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instagram i haven't tried tik tok i'm

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probably a bit too old for it maybe i

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don't know um i tried instagram for a

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while but it was quite um

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i don't know it didn't really

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click with me i do a little bit of

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facebook but not very much okay

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so i'm an old-fashioned girl i like the

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telephone i like speaking to somebody i

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like communicating with somebody eye

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contact facial contact verbally

3:00

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3:01

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3:36

now back to the episode

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i feel like a lot of people have started

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to use like social media as almost like

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a way to compete with their like mental

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health

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so like ah

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so it's like oh like i do this so like

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and then you're like oh mine's not that

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bad then so like i don't need to talk

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about it

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if that makes sense oh really yeah so

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it's like it's like oh i haven't brushed

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my teeth for a week so like i'm way

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worse than you guys are and like stuff

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like that

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people are like trying to outgun each

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other for who has the worst mental

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health like the worst trauma or whatever

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really like yeah it's really competitive

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so you then left tick tock because of

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that yeah i think the sort of passive

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scrolling yeah just watching say

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i'm very involved in mental health and

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emotional well-being children and young

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people okay and um

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it's that

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it's sort of noticing when you when you

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start having those thoughts around like

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comparing yourself with other people

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they can be quite subtle but they're

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quite toxic

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yeah you know just those sort of little

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subtle underlying

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oh she looks so happy or you know

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my life isn't as good as they're like

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yeah and that that's the bit that i

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think is

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um

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can get quite

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sort of toxic there were people that i

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knew on there and i knew they didn't

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kind of lead these uh you know glamorous

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millionaire looking lifestyles but yet

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their photos seem to kind of dictate

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that or indicate that interesting um

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i just thought it's too fake

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i kind of got a bit tired of it so i'm

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quite

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minimal on it really just for just for

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seeing people's holidays i'm interested

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in and what people are doing okay but um

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like lee said i don't like the trolling

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and

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the negative side of it and the bullying

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with children and teenagers hello hello

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easy

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what are your thoughts on social media

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well um in general i think social media

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is amazing it's great it's a it's a

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has so many or it gives so many

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possibilities to

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connect with people to

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learn to educate to inform yourself

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about things to spread awareness about

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certain topics and so it's it's yeah

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it's definitely

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so good that we have it um i think is

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there a butt coming there is a little

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but so obviously on social media it's

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easier for people

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to

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be anonymous and spread also negative

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things to be sexist or racist send

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messages that people don't want to get

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alone over consumption of social media

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can bring a lot of negativity and

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negative thoughts um so i think you have

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to be aware of how you use social media

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how much you use it

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now times like the war in ukraine

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it helps a lot to connect to inform yeah

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and yeah

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if social media exists and you also

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wouldn't have things like the metoo

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movement that probably would not have

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might have taken a few more years for it

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to kick start but i really had to give

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it a boost but i think yeah like you

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said i think you have to be um

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almost see it a little bit in the same

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way you'd see news you wouldn't just sit

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there and watch

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rolling 24-hour news because it's

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exhausting it comes part and parcel of

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having this sort of like form of free

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like a freedom of media you can post

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whatever you like so in a sense you're

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always whatever you like whatever you

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like but in a sense you you kind of you

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don't just get one angle you get 30 a

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hundred thousand angles which can be

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overwhelming which is overwhelming but

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at least you sort of see

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both sides of the picture but that does

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involve also getting the negative with

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the positive i guess and for like

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private matters it's amazing that

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because we do have friends in

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a lot of different countries we do

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travel but also we don't have people in

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one place altogether so we stay in

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contact with people via social media and

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that is that is amazing for sure yeah

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it's a good way to document your life

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there you go if you have to give someone

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a guide on how to use social media then

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say someone wants a tic toc account

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because all their friends have it yeah

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what would your guide be on how to use

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it

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[Applause]

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definitely set a limit to how much you

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use a day and you can you do that now i

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know on instagram you can sort of take

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time like a time off thing on settings

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you can like limit how like long you

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spend on the app i mean like it'd be

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great if you could just stop using the

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app because it says like you can like

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you can choose to continue using it and

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most people just do that so like yeah

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it's like but i would say like to really

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try and limit it like like half an hour

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a day you actually made a good point i

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just remembered that someone said i

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heard someone someone else recommend

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don't use it passively you said

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passively yeah and what do you mean by

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that

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just literally sitting there going

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and scrolling through and then what's

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the contrast to that then the contrast

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is

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using it to actively

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make connections

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sharing stuff yeah

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contact people you know it's an amazing

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way to

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keep in touch with my friends on the

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other side of the world and

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you know um see what people are up to

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and comment on people you know get

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involved

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in people's posts and make comments i

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work in i.t and i tend to get photos of

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the cabling that i do so like before and

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after photos uh and generally that's

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what i use it for now just to share

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photos of that because uh i've got a bit

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of a fan base on my facebook based on

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the uh the kind of wiring i do for my

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i.t job

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which is nerdy and sad but yeah go into

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it more sorry so you sort of take a

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picture when you're it's all messed up

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and horrible yeah yeah so it's like a

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comms cabinet you know with all the

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wires trailing all over the floor and so

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i'll go in and please yeah exactly yeah

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yeah change out all the patch leads and

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make it look all nice and neat it's kind

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of a bit of a and people would like to

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see this they they

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love it yeah hold on your friends yeah

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yeah my friends yeah yeah yeah

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i'm not sure if that makes me sad all

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them yeah so then i was going to say

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like use it for communication but you

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also use it for like

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what would you call this like not comedy

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but like yeah entertainment yeah i mean

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it is yeah probably a form of

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entertainment yeah you know i like

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making people laugh so yeah yeah should

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you use it do you think at all

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as a means to build self-esteem

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oh

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i don't think it's the best tool to

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build people

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to try i think yeah i think it has the

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opposite effect yeah i think

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if you're posting something in order to

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get loads of likes and get popular

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i think that's building yourself up for

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quite a big drop if it doesn't go that

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way then it's like oh i'm useless i'm

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pointless i'm invisible no one's reading

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it no one's seeing it you know and it

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starts all this sort of mental mind

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chatter yeah

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um

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yeah

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but if we're being really honest with

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ourselves a lot of us do do that so

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again it's not don't do it it's just be

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alert notice if you are doing that and

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then make a choice is this good for me

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is this making me feel good or is it

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draining my energy every time i step

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away from social media do i feel rubbish

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yeah you know like just starting to take

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become more self-aware and taking care

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of your own

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sort of mental health something like

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that i do if i'm feeling like really

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unproductive i'll go on my phone yes and

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if i'm like procrastinating i'll go on

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my phone if i just like

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take out the room and just sit there

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like i'll just have to do the thing out

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of boredom

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so like literally just getting rid of

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everything and just kind of doing your

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own thing is

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i think you learned quite a lot just

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being by yourself without your phone

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thanks for watching this week's episode

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let us know in the comments below your

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thoughts on the positives and negatives

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of social media and any advice you can

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give on how to use it productively

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and we'll see you next week

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bye

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i've used social media to really help

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with my book so my book is called being

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with our feelings a mindful approach to

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well-being for children