Sorry.

What was that?

Has that ever happened to you?

Have you been lost in your phone and you didn't hear what was going on in the world around you?

Unfortunately, this has happened to me too, but never fear, today I'm going to help you learn how to think and speak in English while talking about our tech habits.

Are you ready?

Let's do it.

Hi, I'm Vanessa from SpeakEnglishWithVanessa.com and like always, I have created a free PDF worksheet with all of today's important vocabulary, expressions, sample sentences, and at the bottom of the free worksheet, you can answer Vanessa's challenge question so that you never forget what you've learned in this lesson.

You can click the link in the description to download that free PDF worksheet today.

It is my gift to you.

In this lesson, I'm going to tell you a little story about my journey with using technology and I will explain some key vocabulary along the way.

I hope that you too will feel confident thinking and speaking in English about the topic of technology by the end of this lesson.

Let's start with the story.

So I need to watch YouTube for work, but I would oftentimes log onto YouTube for work and end up watching tons of other videos unrelated to work.

It was a time suck.

Can you guess what this word time suck means?

Take a look at this sentence.

I removed all unnecessary apps from my phone because they were just a time suck.

We can kind of imagine a vacuum sucking away your time and that's what it is.

It's just something that wastes your time.

I was wasting time on YouTube.

It was a time suck.

For me, I was developing a reliance on technology because I felt like it was important for my job, but was it really?

This word reliance is talking about being dependent on something.

It's good to be dependent on some things.

I am dependent on my family or I rely on my family.

But the way that I just used it, a reliance on technology, you kind of get the sense that

I don't want to be reliant on technology.

Have you ever said something like this?

I realized that I have a reliance on technology when I use Google Maps to get anywhere.

Google Maps has saved me so many times.

I have a reliance on Google Maps technology.

All right, let's go to the next part of the story.

But the thing was, I couldn't stay focused using the apps that I thought I needed for work.

There were too many distractions.

Let's take a look at this fun expression, the thing is, or the thing was.

I love expressions like this because advanced English speakers and native English speakers use these all the time, but I feel like English learners don't really integrate these into daily conversation.

So here's your chance to be able to use this.

We use the thing is or the thing was to give an introduction to a topic or maybe a summary of a topic.

So let me give you another example.

I know that I need to get healthier, but the thing is, I don't like to work out.

So we're kind of narrowing the topic here.

I know I need to get healthy, but the thing is, here's my introduction to the problem.

The summary of the problem, I don't like to work out.

And that's how I used it when I was talking about technology.

The thing is, my summary or my introduction of the problem, the thing is, I just couldn't stay focused.

And why?

Because the next word, there were too many distractions.

This is the problem with the internet, right?

There are too many distractions.

If you've ever worked online, I'm sure that distractions have been a problem for you.

What are distractions?

Well, they're things that are trying to take your attention away from what you need to be focusing on.

Right now, you need to be focusing on this English lesson on YouTube.

But do you know what?

There are recommended videos.

There are other things online.

Everything might be popping up and moving.

There's so many distractions that it's hard to stay focused and learn English.

I know it's hard to stay focused, but we need to push aside distractions.

And I'm going to give you a solution for this in just a minute, telling you about what I did.

Let's move on to the story.

Even worse, my bad tech habits were making me miss out on real life interactions with my friends and family.

This word, real life interactions, notice the pronunciation here, interactions.

The T has been completely cut out, real life interactions.

This is talking about connecting with people in real life, the people who are at the table with you, the people who are in your classroom.

These are the people, tangible people around you, not the things that are going on online.

It's a problem.

Whenever I heard a notification on my phone, bling, I felt like I needed to check it.

But the problem was I wasn't being present and I needed to do something about it.

This word notification is highly linked to technology nowadays.

We get lots of notifications on our phone all the time.

Such a pain.

What about this?

Being present.

Well, you probably know what a present is, like a gift.

I gave a present to my friend on their birthday, but that's not what we're talking about.

We are talking about your body and your mind being physically there in the moment.

You are being present.

You're not thinking about something else.

You're not worrying about something else.

You are being present.

And that's the problem with our phones.

It's hard to be present when we're looking at our phones and technology.

So what's the solution?

Well, I decided to read a book called Digital Minimalism and it inspired me to add a block on my phone so that I could only use YouTube for a specific amount of time at a specific amount of time per day.

I like this expression, inspired me.

It gave you some inspiration to make some change in your life.

This book inspired me.

It really made me want to make a change.

His descriptions were great.

His analogies were great.

His story was great.

And reading this book inspired me to what?

Add a block.

You might also hear this called blocker, add a blocker on my phone.

There's certain apps.

I use app block, but there are plenty of others that will have you set a type of plan.

I want to only use YouTube from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. each day.

Maybe this is something that you need for work like me.

So this is my working time and I only can watch YouTube during that time.

So it makes me focus because the block is restricting my access.

And also 9 a.m. is when my new YouTube videos come out.

So you're able to focus and study English at this time each Friday.

I hope so.

And not give in to all the distractions.

The most useful thing is that the block turns off all apps at night so that I don't start doom scrolling or get sucked into news articles late at night.

Has this ever happened to you?

You're looking at something and then all of a sudden the internet shows you terrible things happening around the world.

Oh no, bad, bad, bad.

And you have to click on it.

You have to know what it is.

So you start reading more and more bad things.

This is doom scrolling.

And unfortunately it's something that social media does really well because as humans, we want to click on bad things.

We want to find out all of the terrible things that are happening.

So it brings a lot of attention and eyeballs to social media, but it's not good for us as humans to be doom scrolling and feel really anxious.

The other expression that I use is to get sucked into something.

Here again, we're talking about, imagine a vacuum.

Our attention and our brain is being sucked into these news articles or whatever else you might be looking at.

And all of a sudden three hours passes just like that.

And we haven't really noticed the world around us.

We're not being present.

This app block was a game changer.

I felt free finally from the pool of unlimited media.

I'm more productive during my workday and I'm more present when it comes to time with my family and friends.

And you know what?

I can even sleep better at night.

I love this word game changer.

It's such a big expression that means everything changed because of someone or something.

So this simple app on my phone, this app block was a game changer.

It changed everything for my experience using media.

It was a game changer.

You might even say that about my English lessons.

Vanessa's English lessons were a game changer for my English learning journey.

All of a sudden I felt like English was possible.

It was fun.

It was enjoyable.

I had a plan.

Great.

It was a game changer.

I also use the word productive.

When you are productive, you can achieve more.

So it's great to be productive at work.

When you're trying to clean your house, you want to be productive and not distracted.

Of course, you don't need to be productive all the time.

Sometimes it's nice to just go have a picnic outside and spend time with friends.

You're not creating something and working and being productive.

No, you're just enjoying life.

But it's important to be productive when you want to be productive.

And did you notice that I used the word present again?

I could be present with the people who mattered, that my friends and family, I was present with them.

And most importantly, I was able to set a good example for my kids who are growing up with more technology than I could ever have imagined having as a kid.

When I was a kid, there was a TV and a phone on the wall and that was it.

But kids nowadays are growing up with the possibility of so much technology.

And I think this role setting is really important.

I use the word most importantly, because to me, I think this is one of the most important things as a parent that I can do.

My habits affect me, but most importantly, they also affect the young people who I'm trying to raise into good adults.

When you're a parent, you try to set a good example.

Or even just as a human, you try to set a good example.

You don't throw your trash on the ground, you put it in the trash can.

Why?

Of course, to help the earth, but also to set a good example.

You're trying to be a good citizen, a good parent, a good human.

And I also use this wonderful verb phrase, could have ever imagined.

Or we can switch it, could ever have imagined.

This is obviously another big, full expression.

Here I said more technology than I could ever have imagined.

Maybe you can even use this for your English learning journey as well.

You might say, when I was taking English classes as a child, occasionally we watched a VHS in English, but it was so limited.

Now there are more English videos than I could ever have imagined when I was a kid.

Right now, there are really unlimited videos that you can watch in English, and I hope that this one is useful to you.

And finally, I want to show my kids and anyone else that technology is a great tool that you can use when you establish boundaries.

This phrase, establish boundaries, is the key for pretty much everything in life.

You need to establish boundaries with technology, with your work, with your relationships, with yourself.

It is important to establish boundaries.

This means that you're setting limits or guidelines.

You're not just saying, everything's okay.

No, instead you are establishing boundaries in a relationship, maybe your relationship with technology.

And for me, it was really useful to have this app block that was able to help me establish boundaries with technology.

So now I feel a lot healthier and I'm able to use it in a better way.

So now I want to know for you, do you have healthy boundaries around technology and your technology use, or do you need to establish more boundaries with technology like I did?

Let me know in the comments, and don't forget to download the free PDF worksheet for today's lesson with all of today's great tech vocabulary, definitions, sample sentences, and these concepts to help you really be able to level up your English vocabulary so that you can think and speak in English.

You can click on the link in the description to download that free PDF worksheet today.

Well, thanks so much for learning English with me, and I'll see you again next Friday for a new lesson here on my YouTube channel.

Bye.

But wait, do you want more?

I recommend watching this video where you will learn to think and speak in English about your morning routine, including learning about something that I never do in my morning routine.

Watch that video to find out, and I'll see you there.