Listening Task 2D: Gap-filling Exercise on Tech Addiction
Instructions: As you listen to the radio programme, try filling out the gaps in
the paragraphs with the correct words or phrases. Write your answers on the
spaces provided.
1. The sound of ____________________ hanging out together. Or, at least, how it
sounded a few years ago. Nowadays a group of, well, just about anyone – kids,
teens, tweens, their parents – might sound a lot more like this …
2. Most of us spend hours a day with our heads bent over our ____________________.
Research suggests teenagers spend as many as nine hours a day, while pre-teens
spend up to six.
3. I don't know, it's, like, the first thing I do in the morning, check in and see who's
posted anything overnight. It's my ____________________ so I kind of have to look
at it and then, you know, it's pretty hard not to scroll through.
4. And it's not just teenagers and millennials, Generation X and even the
____________________ are almost as bad.
5. I'm online most of the day for work and you'd think I'd be sick of screens by the
time I get home, but most of my news comes through ____________________ and
I'm really into food so I'll hold my hands up to being one of those people who
posts photos of their meals.
6. But are we addicted to our phones and apps? And does it matter? Former Google
and Facebook employees certainly think so. So they've set up a non-profit
organization, the ____________________________________, to reverse the digital
attention crisis and promote safe technology for children.
7. Anyone who's seen queues round the block for the latest iPhone has to wonder
what these people are thinking. You've literally got people sleeping in the street
to get the newest device, probably not even talking to anyone else in the queue
because they're on ____________________, taking selfies in the queue to post to
Instagram. If that's not addiction, it's certainly obsession.
8. A more formal definition of ____________________describes it as a repeated
involvement with an activity, despite the harm it causes. Someone with an
addiction has cravings – that feeling that you haven't checked your phone for two
minutes and can't relax until you get your hands on it again. They may have a
lack of
9. ____________________ and not realize their behavior is causing problems – like
texting while cycling or falling off a cliff taking a selfie. And, in case you're
wondering, I read about both of those via the news app on my phone, which
updates every couple of minutes with the latest stories … definitely addicted. So
the
10. ____________________ campaign by Common Sense Media and the Center for
Humane Technology couldn't come fast enough for most of us. But it's
11. ____________________ who are probably most at risk because of the effect
12. ____________________ might be having on their brain development. Professor Mary
Michaels of the Atlanta Future Tech Institute has been working with very young
children. Mary, thanks for dropping by. What is your research telling us?
13. Well, we know that ____________________ is affecting key aspects of healthy child
development, like sleep, healthy eating and what psychologists call 'serve and
return' moments, which are when parents respond to babies seeking assurance
and connection by making
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14. ____________________, smiling or talking. All perfectly normal things we do and
which help lay the foundations of babies' brains. It's much harder to engage with
a baby normally if you're looking at your phone. Or, even worse, if
15. ____________________ give a crying child a phone to distract them instead of
talking to them or hugging them, and that might lead to them failing to develop
their ability to regulate their own emotions.
16. And what about older ____________________?
17. Again, we know that ____________________ who spend a lot of time on social media
are 56 per cent more likely to report being unhappy and 27 per cent more likely
to suffer depression. Teenagers are especially vulnerable because they're more
sensitive to highs and lows anyway, so we're looking at, potentially, higher
instances of suicide, schizophrenia, anxiety and addiction in teens which is
exacerbated by dependence on technology.
18. It sounds like a vicious circle. They're more likely to get addicted to
_______________ and social media and that
19. ____________________ itself makes them candidates for other addictions. Yes,
that's right. Time to stage an intervention! Is there anything we can do to make
tech less addictive?
20. Setting devices to greyscale, which is basically black and white, might make them
less appealing. ____________________ through a newsfeed of boring, washed-out
photos just doesn't create the same rush as bright colors perhaps. And you can
turn off the notifications that are constantly pulling you back in to check your
phone. So is it ...
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