PSAT Writing and Language Practice Test 44

Questions 23-33 refer to the following information.

Social Media: Good or Evil?

(1) I have 23 sweared off all social media on my phone, comput.er, and tablet. (2) While I am computer literate and I enjoy my family and friends, I would rather have a conversation with a live person sitting across from me than engage in frivolous texting and chatting. (3) 24 Yes, I do use e-mail in my work as an educator and will light up the search engines if I want to find something right away, but I have seen the harm that can be done by this new construct. (4) My pupils also hear my warning that an addicted social media adherent can never do any serious scholarship because there is just not enough time in the day. (5) I tell my classes about how I have seen students who had previously paid attention in class, only to have their participation plummet as soon as they had smartphones. 25

When I was in the classroom, I would ask my honors students how 26 much hours a day they spent with social media and video games, and these students always averaged between three and four hours a day. In my syllabus, I asked for one hour per day for outside work, and in my nine years working with these 27 terrible students, not a single student admitted at the end of the course that he or she had given the course one hour per day.

I have a number of professional friends and family members who manage businesses, and 28 they're number one challenge working

with professional employees is dealing with social media in the workplace. 29 People will not have the action of staying away from this temptation, which is ever-present. The temptation is to experience some news, somewhere, in cyberspace. It is an ongoing issue in my brother's business with production employees and young engineers. He has actually fired several employees who could not 30 stay away from their phones.

I won't even go down the road of the connection of social media with 31 problems and issues around the globe or cyberbullying in our schools. Essentially, I see this as one more example of playing to the addictive tendencies of humans, and I believe it is as capable of diverting time and energy from productive uses as mildly powerful drugs. When you combine this with interactive video games, chat rooms, and phone apps for every diversionary interest, 32 it is a minor miracle that anything productive really happens in our daily lives. When was the last time you sat down and read an interesting book, or took out a sketchpad to record your visual observations? 33 Who has time, for quiet contemplation and creativity with the siren of the cellphone drawing you near for another glimpse of "reality"?