With the rise of the internet more and more people are getting their news from social media platforms. Do the advantages of this trend outweigh the disadvantages?

In the old days, there were only several newspapers from where
people
could get their
news
. Nowadays,
however
, social
media
platforms on the internet have become the main source of
news
.
Although
this
trend enables individuals to stay up to date with the latest events while communicating with their friends, it has a number of disadvantages like illiteracy and widespread fake
news
from unreliable sources.
Therefore
, I personally believe that
this
is a negative development. The following paragraphs will highlight my opinion in detail. To commence, the
news
on social
media
platforms, are generally very short and have a few sentences,
this
makes
people
read less and,
subsequently
, communities become less literate. To compare, newspapers and reliable
news
websites on the internet may have a whole article describing all the details of the event. While on social
media
, like,
for example
, Twitter and Facebook,
people
read only a headline and two more sentences.
This
has an adverse impact on concentration and intelligence. Because,
as a result
,
people
become unable to focus on reading long articles. Adding
further
, individuals and companies can take advantage of the lack of censorship of
news
' genuinity on social
media
platforms, and spread fake
news
. Fake
news
can lead individuals to hatred against,
for instance
, religion, celebrities, politicians and etc. Thousands of shares and reposts can generate huge revenue for
news
editors and
media
companies;
thus
,
people
should not blindly trust anything they read. To conclude, Twitter or Facebook is not a reliable source of information. I believe that
people
should develop a habit of getting
news
on specific websites like bbc.com or nytimes.com.
Submitted by shoira.shakirovna on

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Answer the 'Advantages and Disadvantages' topic

IELTS advantages and disadvantages questions normally give you a statement and ask you to comment on the advantages and disadvantages of that statement.

Answer structure for the type of essay

  • Introduction
  • Body paragraph 1 – advantages
  • Body paragraph 2 – disadvantages
  • Conclusion

Examples to start your body paragraph:

  • The main advantage is...
  • The disadvantage of this...
  • The main benefit...
  • Despite these advantages...
  • One possible drawback...

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Topic Vocabulary:
  • accessible information
  • breaking news
  • real-time updates
  • informed society
  • global connectivity
  • diverse perspectives
  • critical thinking
  • comprehensive understanding
  • rapid dissemination
  • timely updates
  • emergencies
  • urgent situations
  • spread of misinformation
  • fake news
  • unverified information
  • professional journalism standards
  • biased reporting
  • poorly-researched news
  • echo chambers
  • confirmation bias
  • algorithms
  • narrow viewpoint
  • differing perspectives
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