Technology in Daily Life
Practise talking about the devices and apps you rely on, describe a piece of technology you use every day, and discuss how screens, AI and data are reshaping society.
Medium · 1 attempt · Average band 6.0
Part 1 · Interview
4–5 minShort questions about you and your daily life. Pick a question to see the strategy and a sample answer.
How much time do you spend on your phone each day?
How to answer
Give a rough figure rather than an exact one, then qualify it — examiners reward natural hedging like 'probably' or 'roughly' over suspiciously precise numbers.
Sample answer
Honestly, more than I'd like to admit — probably around three hours. My phone tells me the figure every Sunday, which is a bit depressing. Most of it is messaging and podcasts, though, so it's not all mindless scrolling. I've been trying to keep it under two hours on weekdays.
Part 2 · Cue card
3–4 minCue card
Describe an app or piece of technology you use every day.
You should say:
What it is and how you first found out about it
How often and when you use it
What you use it for
And explain why it has become such an important part of your day
Strategy
Pick an everyday app you know inside out rather than an impressive gadget — a mundane choice you can describe in rich detail scores far better than a vague one.
Open by naming the technology straight away, then add the back-story — examiners reward a clear and immediate focus.
Use time markers like 'first thing in the morning' and 'on my way home' to organise the middle section of the talk.
Save your strongest reason for the final bullet and signal it clearly with a phrase like 'the real reason, though, is...'.
Model answer
I'm going to talk about the podcast app on my phone, which I genuinely use every single day — probably more than any other piece of technology I own, apart from the phone itself. I first came across it about four years ago, when a colleague kept quoting a history podcast at lunch, and eventually I downloaded the app just so I could keep up with the conversation. I had no idea at the time that it would completely change how I spend my dead time. As for when I use it — every morning, without fail. My commute is about forty minutes each way, and that used to be the most boring part of my day; now it's the part I almost look forward to. I also put an episode on while I'm cooking dinner, and if I can't sleep I'll play something gentle with the sleep timer set for twenty minutes. What do I use it for? Mainly learning, I suppose, though it never feels like studying. I subscribe to a couple of history shows, one about science, and a comedy panel show for the days when I don't want to think too hard. The app downloads new episodes overnight automatically, which sounds like a small thing, but it matters when your bus goes through tunnels with no signal. And the reason it's become so central to my day is that it turned wasted time into something I actually value. Those forty minutes on the bus used to just vanish; now I arrive at work having learnt something or laughed at something, and honestly, I'm usually in a better mood for it.
Part 3 · Discussion
4–5 minDeeper follow-up questions on the part 2 themes.
Do you think parents should limit the amount of time children spend on screens?
How to answer
State a qualified position early ('broadly, yes, but...'), then distinguish between different types of screen use to show evaluative depth.
Sample answer
Broadly, yes, though I'd say the type of screen time matters more than the raw number of hours. There's a world of difference between a child passively watching auto-playing videos and one building something in a creative game or video-calling a grandparent. So rather than a blanket ban, I think sensible parents set boundaries around when screens are used — not at meals, not before bed — and pay attention to what's actually on them. Having said that, limits only work if adults model them too; a parent scrolling through dinner while lecturing their kids about screen time is fighting a losing battle.
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