23/6/2018 In many places, people’s lifestyle is changing rapidly, and this affects family relationships. Do you think the advantages of those developments outweigh the disadvantages?
Outline:
- Lifestyle change weaken family bonds: (1) travel with friends and alone more than with family => loosen the tie with family members. + (2) Busy work and study => no time for family meals, eat out => strip families of quality time together because people cannot exchange much.
- Advantages: (1) online communication for people living far away from each other: keep in touch by frequent voice and video calls (2)fast food consumption allows more industrious lifestyle to cope with the fast pace of modern life
Vocabulary:
connotation | ˌkɒnəʊˈteɪʃən | n. Ý nghĩa |
The bond among people | ðə bɒnd əˈmʌŋ ˈpiːpl | n. Mối liên hệ giữa mọi người |
loosen the tie | ˈluːsn ðə taɪ | n. Nới lỏng mối gắn kết |
exacerbate | ɛksˈæsə(ː)beɪt | v. Làm trầm trong thêm |
Hectic schedules | ˈhɛktɪk ˈʃɛdjuːlz | n. Lịch trình dày đặc |
trait | treɪt | n. Nét |
pace | peɪs | n. Tốc độ |
industrial lifestyle | ɪnˈdʌstrɪəl ˈlaɪfˌstaɪl | n. Lối sống công nghiệp |
slice off | slaɪs ɒf | v. Cắt giảm |
detriments | ˈdɛtrɪmənts | n. Sự thiệt hại |
Changes in society in economy, culture, entertainment, and other fields have resulted in the emergence of some new features of lifestyles which influence family relationships. I believe these new ways of life have more negative than positive connotations.
The bond among family members is weakened because of the new lifestyle. First, people love to travel more than before, and for the young, their journeys are more for enjoyment among friends rather than for quality time with their family. This contributes to reducing time spent with family members and thus loosen the ties among parents and children and among siblings. The situation is even exacerbated when the hectic learning and working schedules strip households of their meals together. Talks during meals are undoubtedly a crucial piece to complete the puzzle of healthy family relationships, but by eating out, people have lost their opportunities to develop mutual understanding and to update about each other.
However, new traits in the modern lifestyles can also be beneficial for family relationships at times. A typical example is that the habit of communication via social networks rather than face-to-face meeting helps family members who live far away from each other to show love and care through exchanges of messages and emoticons, or via voice or video calls. This new way of connection reduces trips back home of children but still keep a strong attachment with their family members. Besides, fast meals out instead of family cooking allows people to have more time for their business and cope better with the fast pace and heavy demand of the modern industrial lifestyle.
In conclusion, there are two sides of the impacts that changes in lifestyle have caused to connections among family members. However, it is the new way of life that slices off valuable family time, leading to broken relationships, and thus resulting in more detriments than benefits. (310 ws)