Brain-changing social media

Hi everyone!

Ever wondered how social media use may be changing us physiologically? Some people claim our brains, and even our nervous system, are being rewired by media use, particularly in heavy users.

So click below to find out more about the way we are challenging our brains by stimulating it like never before in history! And also to fill the gaps provided here with up to three words.

Disable closed captions (CC button) to do the activity, and turn them on to check your answers. There's also a key available.

Enjoy!

1. With social media being ______________________ one third of the entire world, they’ve clearly had a ______________________ on society.

2. There are similarities between social media addiction and drug dependence, even if one is a psychological addiction and the other is a ______________________ .

3. It was found that heavy media users did worse in task switching tests. High multi-tasking online can even make it difficult for your brain to commit ______________________ .

4. Phantom Vibration Syndrome is a relatively new phenomenon, where you think you ______________________  your phone ______________________ , but it didn’t.

5. Social media also ______________________  a release of dopamine, with the reward centres of the brain being more active when people talk about ______________________ , as opposed to listening to others.

6. It’s also been found that partners who met for the first time online tend to ______________________  more than those who first met face to face.

7. This increased success in partnerships started online may be due to anonymity or to people being clearer about ______________________ .

What does Beethoven taste like?

Hi everyone!

Here's a video about the senses, and about a condition called synesthesia in which certain senses which are not normally connected are very much related: for example, some people see sounds or taste letters. Synesthesia is also a literary device whereby we associate different senses together, like when we speak about "the caress of your voice", for example.

So here's a little video briefly describing this condition. Some previous vocabulary and some questions:

Vocabulary:

the culprit
sensory (adj)
tangle up
shut down
to keep sth in check


Questions:

- Which senses are mentioned throughout the video?
- What is sequence synesthesia?
- What is a possible explanation for seeing A as red?
- What do we mean by the association of senses being durable? And memorable?
- Why was the host reticent to do an episode on this topic?


My ongoing battle with difficult verb patterns for Spanish speakers, like suggest, leads me to asking you to find the use of that verb at the end of the video and transcribe the full sentence. Ideas in the comment section! Thank you!

By the way, you can use closed captions for the key in this one. Enjoy!

Topic Video: Science and Research

Hello everyone!

The video for today is on one of my favourite topics: women in science. A video "with a twist": it's from 1954.

A promotional video by GE (General Electric) that shows us that "it's not a man's world". The questions:

1. What does each woman do (some details, please)?
2. What are polymers?
3. What is the biologist working on at the moment?
2. List the adverb + adjective collocations
3. List the adjective + noun collocations.
4. Which of these collocations are specific to science or could you use in a conversation about science?

My oh my the end of the video... Well it's 1954 after all...!

All my respect today to women devoted to science and research.

Key coming soon! Please comment!