Shadowing Practice: so you deleted social media. now what? - Learn English Speaking with Video

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So you did it.

You decided to remove this thing that was getting in the way of your presence, your happiness, your productivity, everything that you want to build up.

This was kind of bringing down and you decided that you've had enough.

You deleted social media, but something is going to happen to you that happens to probably 95 % of people.

And I've had hundreds of comments about it in my last, how to delete social media video.

It's probably going to happen to you as well, or it probably already has happened or it's happening right now.

First of all, I want to these apps in the first place.

This is something that not a lot of people are willing to do.

It's clear that you're not kind of like everyone else in a good way.

You're forging your own path in life and you know what's best for you

and you decided to go out and do this and that's sincerely, good job.

Congratulations.

Some people, it might not seem like a big deal like yeah I just deleted some apps

but for me it was a big deal getting off these apps and for you it probably is too so good job.

Congratulations for taking the first step and now you're going to start making more

your relationships with everything that you want so let's do it

and again congratulations now a lot of us spent four hours on social media

when we had or you're currently using that much

and that's like the low end of things some people are

six eight ten hours a day of social media i'm not joking it gets

that bad for some people

and that's okay again i don't believe it's your fault it's the companies

that made these apps to be addictive but once we take away these apps we now have

four hours to do whatever the hell we want people are

always saying they never have enough time to do anything the

day isn't long enough there's not enough time in the day to do anything i just said the same thing

but you get the point but it's like check your screen time have you been spending

hours a day on social media the issue is half social media use half not Social media is very toxic, which I talked about in my last video.

And all it's really ever brought us was pain, jealousy, fear of missing out.

Pretty much only negative things.

So taking out this negativity from our life is a big step in getting to a better mental state

and a better day -to -day life.

And that's why I congratulated you.

The second issue of social media use is the wasted time.

Let's say you spent four hours a day on social media.

That's 1 ,460 hours a year.

that you spent on social media?

What if you spent that hours doing something else like learning a hobby or exercising?

The change would be insane.

You would look incredible and you would be incredible at whatever it is you were trying to get better at.

But on the other hand, spending 1 ,460 hours on social media, I hope we can both agree, is 100 % wasted time.

There's no physical reward of social media as in you can't take anything home with you.

There's nothing to show There's no reward, there's nothing, there's no improvement in anything.

It's just, the hours are just gone.

And most of the time you don't even remember what you were doing for those hours.

They're literally just gone.

And when you used to use social media or if you currently do, how often do you remember what you saw that day on social media?

And if you thought about it, you might be able to say one or two things, but also you don't think about it.

So it's pretty much entirely wasted time.

and you don't even feel good in the moment when you're doing it you're kind of just scrolling there like

I don't know if you guys can hear that, but that's why I'm in the car.

Occasionally you'll exhale out of your nose when you see a funny thing, but that's your face.

You're not enjoying it.

You're just keeping yourself busy and not bored because a little boredom is so scary to all of us and To us.

Yes, this is addictive the random chance that you might see someone attractive

or you might see something that makes you breathe out of your nose is Something we crave.

It's the novelty.

It's the maybe we'll see something nice.

Maybe we won't It's like a slot machine the slot machine

you it's like you put money into it You scroll it

or whatever and you might win and you might not and that's what makes our brain addicted to things It works.

And now that that slot machine is gone, our brain is going to latch on to the closest thing

that resembles that to fill the pleasure that we're losing now that we don't use these apps anymore.

For who knows how long after I quit social media, I jumped to YouTube and Netflix.

I don't necessarily believe YouTube and Netflix are bad things.

I think in moderation, there's really nothing wrong with them.

Around one hour a day is my limit that I would be like, I'm OK.

I did that today.

But it is incredibly easy to remove Snapchat, TikTok, Instagram from your life and to just spend the four hours

that we were doing those apps for to spend four hours on Netflix and YouTube.

I will raise my hand and admit that I have done this to you.

And I'm pretty sure you have done something along the lines

of it too from jumping from one addiction to another

and The good thing is you are doing the right thing by not being on social media

because I believe YouTube and Netflix are better than those other apps.

I don't consider YouTube with social media

Some people do but I see YouTube is kind of like a content con - I

Don't consider YouTube the same you might see it differently, but when I talk about social media talking about Twitter, TikTok, Instagram, whatever the social medias.

Now, like I said, YouTube and Netflix are better than those apps, but you're still wasting a good amount of time.

There's a whole ass palm tree.

What happened to them, bruh?

Where are they going?

Go back to what I said about imagining the progress you could make towards something

if you spent 1 ,000 plus hours doing it.

Here comes the fun part.

Take whatever

crocheting whatever it is and now you can start

because you have all this extra free time what's stopping you or

if you're already learning something new now spend more time doing

it you have three extra hours in the day three plus extra hours in the day to do what do

and learn whatever you want isn't

that exciting i feel like it would kind of be a shame if you just spent all that new

hours every day doing something productive that's still 365 hours of the in a year

that you're now added to this new thing this is the beauty of being off social media

and using those hours productively here's your actionable step of the video take something

that you've always wanted to learn write it down this is a journaling channel get your notebook

or get something to write or even use your phone

and write what it is you want to learn this year one thing playing guitar and this extra free time, learn how to do it.

Consistency isn't necessarily an easy thing, so that's something, but you can remind yourself, like, I have so much free time.

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I've been on YouTube two hours.

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Let's do this new thing for just some time.

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That's how you start.

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It kind of sucks knowing I spent

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so much time not realizing I had just jumped from Snapchat to right to YouTube, you know?

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Get excited.

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And now that I've put it into perspective how much extra time you have, you can kind of get about it.

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Everyone else is spending four plus hours a day on social media

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and we don't want to be like that because it just doesn't work for us.

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So find something.

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Your new activity shouldn't be a chore though.

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For example, I love playing piano.

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I could play for two hours straight and be happy, but to someone that doesn't really care for piano, that would be a chore.

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That would be dreadful and they would only do it for an hour the first day

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and then the next day it's like, so you know what Even it doesn't have to be something crazy.

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Like you can be cooking.

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It can be going for a walk, like anything, but it has to be something that you can look forward to.

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We are all afraid of boredom.

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Let's be honest.

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That's why we all got so addicted to this technology in the first place.

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But it's a shame to not try to learn as many things that are possible on this earth.

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Karate.

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I don't know.

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Yoga, whatever it is, just find something.

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And now with all this free time, because you've deleted social media, if you're here, you probably have because 80 % of you came from that social media video.

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Start now and I'm not suggesting never watching YouTube or Netflix again.

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I use this strategy where I only consume content in the last hour of the day.

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And that's in this video or this video, wherever the freaking card is.

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And I think this is the most productive way to live your life right now.

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Because you don't have to cut out anything, but you do all your productivity stuff.

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And then you kind of relax at night and then off to bed.

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This works for me, might not work for some people.

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Acknowledge if this is you.

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If you've been spending too much time on YouTube, or whatever it is now that you don't have social media.

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It's okay.

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I've been there.

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It's just this little hump that you have to get over.

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Now that you've deleted social media, you have to get over this bump of your addiction and replacing it with these things in the real world.

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And you'll be so freaking happy you did it.

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And start slowly.

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You don't have to become ultra productive, 100 % of your day productive overnight.

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It's a process.

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Start with one thing.

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Like I'm saying, I'm only asking for one thing, whatever it is. And start.

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You don't have to do an hour a day either.

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15 minutes is better than zero.

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Five minutes is better than zero.

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But start and slowly build it over time.

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And as you are off your screens, I realize, damn, time is so slow when you're off a screen.

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I play piano for what feels like an hour and I realize it's only been 15.

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It's only been like 30 minutes.

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How much now, free time, how exciting it is.

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If you agree with this content and you're ready to make the change, I like you.

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I have a Discord community in the description.

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We're almost at 300 members now.

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There's a lot of people like you that you can talk to, that you can become friends with.

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It's honestly, it's really nice.

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Personal coaching calls are also in the description if you want more personal help where we can work on our problems together.

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Apparently my phone got too hot so it stopped recording, but...

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personal coaching It didn't even rain.

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Why did I film this outside?

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I swear I'm not a person

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

This B2 speaking lesson is built on the video “so you deleted social media. now what?”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: hour, Youtube, whatever, apps. This video has 161 sentences and 1975 words to shadow. The speech runs for 10:04. The speaker talks fast, about 196 words per minute, so expect linked and reduced sounds. 89% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is easy to follow.

Key vocabulary in this video

The 15 most advanced words in the video, with pronunciation and meaning:

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
slot noun	/slɑt/	A narrow depression, perforation, or aperture; especially, one for the reception of a piece fitting or sliding into it.
boredom noun	/ˈbɔɹ.dəm/	The state of being bored.
chore noun	/t͡ʃoɹ/	A task, especially a regularly needed task for the upkeep of a home or similar, such as cleaning or preparing meals.
excite verb	/ɪkˈsaɪt/	To stir the emotions of; to cause to feel excitement.
addictive adjective	/əˈdɪktɪv/	Causing or tending to cause addiction; habit-forming.
addict noun	/ˈæd.ɪkt/	A person who is addicted, especially to a harmful drug.
scroll noun	/skɹoʊl/	A roll of paper or parchment; a writing formed into a roll.
addiction noun	/əˈdɪkˌʃən/	A state that is characterized by compulsive drug use or compulsive engagement in rewarding behavior, despite negative consequences.
productivity noun	/ˌpɹɒdʌkˈtɪvəti/	The state of being productive, fertile, or efficient.
actionable adjective	/ˈæk.ʃə.nə.bəl/	Able to be acted on; able to be used as the basis for taking action.
crochet noun	/kɹoʊˈʃeɪ/	A form of needlework that is made by looping thread with a hooked needle.
exhale verb	/ˌɛksˈheɪ̯l/	To expel air from the lungs through the nose or mouth by action of the diaphragm, to breathe out.
moderation noun	/ˌmɑdəˈɹeɪʃən/	The state or quality of being moderate; avoidance of extremes.
negativity noun	/ˌnɛɡ.əˈtɪ.vɪ.ti/	The characteristic of being pessimistic or contrarian.
productively adverb		In a productive manner.

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Word	Meaning
get over verb	To overcome.
bring down verb	To make (a ruler or government) lose their position of power.
build up verb	To erect; to construct.
cut out verb	To refrain from (doing something, using something etc.), to stop or cease (doing something).
get off verb	To move from being on top of (something) to not being on top of it.
go back to verb	To stem from; to originate in.
go out verb	To leave, especially a building.
look forward to verb	To anticipate, expect, or wait for, especially with a feeling of approval or pleasure; to be excited or eager to.

Sentences worth repeating

Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:

It's the maybe we'll see something nice.
Let's do this new thing for just some time.
Your new activity shouldn't be a chore though.
Why did I film this outside?

Pronunciation to watch

The speaker uses 62 contractions and reduced forms, such as don't, you're, I'm. Say them the short way, as you hear them.

The “sh” and “zh” sounds: addiction /əˈdɪkˌʃən/, actionable /ˈæk.ʃə.nə.bəl/, crochet /kɹoʊˈʃeɪ/, moderation /ˌmɑdəˈɹeɪʃən/
Long words — get the stress right: productivity /ˌpɹɒdʌkˈtɪvəti/, actionable /ˈæk.ʃə.nə.bəl/, moderation /ˌmɑdəˈɹeɪʃən/, negativity /ˌnɛɡ.əˈtɪ.vɪ.ti/, congratulate /kənˈɡɹæd͡ʒ.ʊˌleɪt/

How to practise with this video

Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like slot, boredom, chore.

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 →

Shadowing Practice: so you deleted social media. now what? - Learn English Speaking with Video

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