You should spend about 40 minutes on this task.

Some people think that excessive use of smartphones badly affects teenagers’ literacy skills. Do you agree or disagree?

Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience. Write at least 250 words

It is argued that overuse of smartphones has adverse effects on the adolescents’ literacy skills. I feel this is true not just in the case of teenagers, but among all the age groups.

The cardinal reason why I agree to the statement is because of the way which people, especially teenagers communicate on their smartphones. Instead of sending formal text messages, which was common when e-mails were popular, they send short codes, emojis , smileys and pictures. Today, most smartphones have a number of such facilities, to which the adolescents are addicted to when they communicate.

The second reason behind my agreement is because of the increasing popularity of smartphones among the adolescents. Studies have proven that a growing number of people from this age group cannot abstain from their smartphone use for just 10 to 15 minutes when they are awake. The core issue here is the limited time they spend to nurture their literacy skills. Instead they live in a world of entertainment and socialization.

Finally, none of the smartphone companies promote ways to enrich literacy skills among people.  These companies attract their potential customers, that are teenagers, with features they prefer at their age. Keypads with inbuilt grammar and auto spelling correction facilities are available in some smartphones, but these features are least used by the adolescents.

To conclude, there is no doubt that the overuse of smartphones affects the literacy skills of people, especially teenagers. Changed situations, smartphone companies and the users themselves are found to be responsible for this.

Word count: 254