Shadowing Practice: just delete social media, see what happens. - Learn English Speaking with Video

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I'm not going to sit here and tell you that deleting social media is the easiest thing to do because it's not.
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I know from personal experience that I didn't want to delete them because I was too worried I would miss out.
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Whether it was the news or whatever it was my friends were up to, I just felt like I was going to be alienated from the world.
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So I decided to ask myself, Is that really such a bad thing?
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I figured whatever.
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I only have like two friends anyway.
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So I decided to just delete social media, get it out of the way, get it out of my life.
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I'm not going to lie.
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It did feel pretty weird at first.
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I found myself scrolling on things like Gmail and photos, which is like pretty random.
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But that made me realize that scrolling is basically a coping mechanism for your brain when you're bored.
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So it made me think, should I really be this bored this often?
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So I was like, look, I didn't delete social media just to occupy myself with some other app.
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So I put my phone in another room so I wouldn't feel the urge to just compulsively pick it up.
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And I Boom.
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The boredom begun.
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However, this wasn't the typical boredom that would typically just be filled by scrolling.
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This boredom had me thinking, hmm...
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what should I do now?
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I felt like a hundred doors all with different possibilities just opened up in front of me.
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Like it was a weird feeling.
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Honestly, so in the daytime, I started going on more walks.
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I started spending more time outdoors.
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I started walking my dog way more like this dog was getting like six walks a day
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and when I couldn't go outdoors.
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I would like tidy up my room.
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I would journal.
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I even asked my family to play board games, which I hadn't done in like years.
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And this just made me reminisce.
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Do you guys remember when you were a kid?
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and you would just get so excited to watch a new movie or play a new game or get that new toy.
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Like seriously, think about it.
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Do you guys remember?
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Because I was one of those kids.
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I felt like as a kid, I was able to just have fun with whatever it was you put in front of me.
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And after a couple days without my phone, this slowly started to come back to me.
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I also realized simply how productive you can be if you just got rid of that one major distraction.
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that is your phone.
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I mean, it's honestly so crazy how much power your phone holds in your life.
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You don't even realize how much time you spend on it every single day.
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And when I decided to just get rid of it for a certain amount of time, I really realized this.
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And it's like, you have so much time in a day, but your phone and screens just occupy so much of your day.
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I mean, I know
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Like all three of those things go together and it really just comes down to obviously being distracted and being bored.
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But when the phone is right beside you at all times, your brain just tells you that you're bored because you don't have that dopamine rush going on all the time.
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And you just get that simple fix by picking up the phone and it just consumes you.
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It just consumes you.
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Like I speak firsthand experience.
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I was consumed by my phone.
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And when I put my phone away, I was more productive.
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connected with myself.
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I felt more at peace.
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And when I reflect on it, on all the positive experiences I got from just putting the phone down, my brain really didn't want me to do it at first.
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So it really is like a mental battle
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that you have to have with yourself in order to put this device
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that holds such great value in your life away for a certain amount of time.
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It's not simple.
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But man, It made me feel not that I'm not young,
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but like it made me feel like I I was a kid again.
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Everything felt like I was experiencing it again.
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Like I went to the park, you know, with nothing just by myself.
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And I was just like looking at trees.
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It was just me and my thoughts nothing there to really distract me also the shit
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that you see on social media and the shit
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that you see on your phone Just doesn't matter like what is the stuff that we are consuming?
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Every day on social medias on Instagram on Facebook on Twitter on whatever it is like What is this stuff
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that we're consuming and why does our brain want this fix
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so much think about it? if it was like a good fix of information for your brain to consume, it wouldn't want so much of it.
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So it's like the fact that it keeps you just coming back for more, it just shows that like, you probably shouldn't really be consuming it because it's addicting, right?
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I guess in summary, this wasn't easy, but it was definitely worth it.
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It's definitely something that I would tell you to do
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if you feel like you kind of need a reset in your life,
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you feel like things are maybe getting a little too procrastination habits, something like that.
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Just try and cut something out of your life
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that you feel is taking up too much of your time
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because I'm definitely just not on it as much as I used to be.
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I realized that it really is just pretty brain dead.
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Just the shit on there.
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I unfollowed a lot of people that I don't know.
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Man, cutting it out was great and it's definitely just helped me limit my usage more.
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But yeah, you guys already know all of this.
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I just wanted to share my experiences with you.
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Let me know your thoughts on this in the comments.
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Let me know if you've
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like this just let me know your overall thoughts guys drop it in the comments
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if you like the video drop a like drop a sub
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i'd really appreciate it guys i'm trying to hit 700 subscribers
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so i'd really appreciate that guys thank you for watching peace and love

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Why practice speaking with this video?

This video offers an authentic narrative about the experience of deleting social media and its impact on daily life. By practicing speaking with this content, learners can engage in meaningful conversations about modern distractions and the potential benefits of disconnecting from technology. Discussing the challenges and insights shared in the video provides excellent practice for IELTS speaking practice, which emphasizes personal experiences and opinions. The emotional depth of the speaker's journey fosters an enriching context for learners to express themselves and improve fluency. Engaging with this material on a shadowing site allows learners to mimic pronunciation, intonation, and rhythm in a structured manner, enhancing their overall speaking skills.

Grammar & Expressions in Context

Throughout the video, several key grammatical structures and expressions are used that can enhance your speaking skills:

  • “I decided to ask myself…” - This structure is useful for framing personal reflections. It invites learners to explore their thoughts in conversation.
  • “I figured whatever.” - This informal expression indicates a casual acceptance of a situation, which is great for everyday dialogue.
  • “It did feel pretty weird at first.” - Using expressions of personal feelings helps convey emotions effectively in English, making speech more relatable.
  • “I started going on more walks.” - The simple past tense here can be utilized to share experiences, making it a vital structure for narratives.
  • “You don’t even realize how much time you spend on it.” - This construction is great for discussing habits in relation to time, a common topic in the IELTS speaking practice.

Common Pronunciation Traps

While engaging with the video, learners might encounter some pronunciation challenges:

  • “boredom” – Be mindful of the second syllable; it can easily get swallowed in fast speech.
  • “compulsively” – The blend of sounds can be tricky, especially with the "-ively" suffix. Practice slowing it down for clarity.
  • “productive” – Pay attention to the stress on the second syllable; many speakers tend to mispronounce it by stressing the wrong syllable.
  • “consume” – This word has a unique rhythm; the second syllable should be pronounced quickly to maintain fluency.

Using this video as a resource not only helps in vocabulary building but also enables learners to improve their pronunciation through shadowspeak, which emphasizes the importance of mimicking native speakers. So, as you learn English with YouTube, focus on emulating both the grammatical constructs and the nuances of pronunciation to enhance your speaking skills effectively.

What is the Shadowing Technique?

Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.

Shadowing technique: read the full step-by-step guide →