Technology · Opinion essay · Band 7.5
Has Social Media Made Us Less Social?
The question, a model answer written to the band 7.5 descriptors, why it scores that band against the 4 official criteria, topic vocabulary, and a common mistake to avoid.
Opinion essay
Some people believe that social media has made people less social by reducing face-to-face interaction. To what extent do you agree or disagree? Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience. Write at least 250 words.
Model answer (band 7.5)
Written to the band 7.5 descriptors, not by a real examiner. Read it for structure and language, then write your own in your own words. Examiners can tell a memorised essay from an original one.
I largely agree that social media has reduced the quantity, though not necessarily the quality, of face-to-face interaction, and that this shift carries real social costs even as it offers new conveniences.
The clearest evidence is behavioural. It is now common to see groups of friends sitting together in a cafe, each absorbed in their own phone rather than talking to one another. Social media offers a lower-effort substitute for conversation: a liked photo or a brief comment can feel like maintaining a friendship without the vulnerability or time commitment that an actual conversation requires. Over years, this can erode the deeper communication skills, such as reading tone and body language, that only develop through repeated in-person practice.
However, I would not say social media has made people less social in every sense. It has, in fact, enabled forms of connection that were previously impossible, allowing people to maintain relationships with friends and family across continents and reconnect with contacts they would otherwise have lost touch with entirely. For some, particularly those who are introverted or live in isolated areas, social media provides a genuine lifeline to community that physical distance would otherwise deny them.
On balance, though, the net effect for most people seems to be substitution rather than addition: screen time for socialising tends to replace rather than supplement in-person time, and this substitution is where the real cost lies. The convenience of a text message too often wins out over the effort of meeting in person.
In conclusion, while social media has real social benefits for specific groups, its dominant effect on the average user has been to hollow out face-to-face interaction rather than enrich it.
Why this answer scores band 7.5
Mapped to the 4 official IELTS Writing criteria.
- Task Response: agrees with a clear degree of qualification ('largely agree'), which shows nuanced thinking rather than an all-or-nothing stance.
- Coherence and Cohesion: a concession paragraph is clearly flagged ('However') before the essay returns to and strengthens its original position.
- Lexical Resource: natural, topic-specific phrases ('lower-effort substitute', 'hollow out face-to-face interaction') used precisely rather than generically.
- Grammatical Range and Accuracy: varied sentence openings and accurate use of concessive and comparative structures throughout.
Useful vocabulary & collocations
Phrases used in the model answer that lift Lexical Resource naturally.
Common mistake on this type of question
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