This is an all English podcast, episode 1517, are you glued to all ears English?

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What does it mean when you say that someone is glued to something? And what are you glued to these days? In today's episode, join our conversation about social media, TV friends and sticking together.

Hey, Aubrey, do you have any new habits or maybe like new TV shows or like hobbies that you're getting into?

Yeah, what have I been doing lately? I did start watching a new show called Bridgton, but I felt like I shouldn't always be TV. I like talking about watching TV all the time. I have started a new hobby slash sport called Spike Ball. I think I talk to you about Spike Ball.

Once we take about jumping into the beach, maybe maybe we should just pause for a moment and take a quick reality check for our listeners.

Yeah, you probably did talk to me about this, but on another podcast guide, it is me and Aubrey today on All English, and I'm so excited.

Yeah. If you guys don't listen to Eilts Energy, there's a chance you haven't heard us as much. You guys hear us sometimes here on the all ears English, but not together.

Almost never.

Yeah, totally. So we are excited to be here. OK, so Spike Ball, is there anything like any new ish habit that maybe is taking up too much of your time?

Yes, I lately I have been really glued to gardening. I'm like trying to fix up our backyard and I will spend hours like digging and trenching and ends up taking a lot of time to try and plant things and rearrange and so that and then I found some gardening books that I could not back down.

Yeah. What does that mean? Because that is a very fun idiom to be glued to something. What does that mean?

Yeah, well, so I kind of think it in two ways to be extremely focused on something where I like spend too much time doing it. And then there's also kind of the almost being physically stuck to something. If I say I'm glued to this book, it's like my hands are glued to it. I cannot physically put it down, all of it.

So it is it's definitely like metaphorical in both of these meanings. Right.

I could I could think of personal examples for for both of those. I'm I'm I'm glued to my nightly experience of this television show called Billions. Right now, I am glued to billions right now. I watch it every night. It's my like I have to do it before bed. It's my it's the nice buffer between, like, real life and bedtime. But then also because an Oregon school is still canceled. So kind of glued to James as well right now.

Right, because we're just we're we're still at home where I live, which is another fun idiom where you're, say, attached at the hip of your head.

That would be like, oh, we're attached at the hip. I mean, you're always together like you're glued together.

Oh, my God, that's adorable. That's often used. Guys, you could use this to describe, like if a friend gets a new boyfriend or girlfriend and, you know, that initial infatuation stage where they cannot be apart, it's like they are attached at the hip.

And depending on how you say that could be good or it could be a judge thing to say, like, oh, it's like they're attached at the hip.

Why are they glued to each other? I don't even see her anymore.

Yeah. And some things we use them in both of those senses where like, for example, your phone be like I'm glued to my phone and that means like you're kind of addicted to it. You're like on it all the time and physically too. Right, because you're holding it all the time. So that sort of means both. That is so good.

You know, and in real life, guys, when you are talking to other people, this phrase adds so much more pizzazz to what you're saying, because think about how common it is to say this. Right. And just daily life, like, oh, I use my phone too much, like, OK, that's boring. But what if I say I am glued to my phone or like right now, guys, I am getting into a whole bunch of social media stuff for all the English, and I'm kind of glued to my phone now, checking different tweets and posts and whatnot.

So say you're glued to it. That sounds so much more fun.

Yeah, it's much more interesting than just saying I am really interested in this or I'm focused on this. Right. Such a more fun idiom to say you're glued to it.

Yeah, for sure. You know, this also leads to another conversation that I know natives have with each other a lot. Guys, listeners, I'm sure you think about this, if not also have conversations about it, but attention span. Right. Because if we think about how they're connected, like being glued to something, it's like you start watching one YouTube video and then you're glued to your phone for the next two hours because you go down that rabbit hole.

So do you think like does that connect to the.

Idea of discussing attention span? Yeah, definitely right, you get glued to something and like my kids, toddlers, I think especially have a short attention span and there's something about screen time that capitalizes on that. So that watch the next video. Right. It capitalizes on your short attention span and puts you in kind of this never ending cycle. And I get that to where I'm like scrolling on Facebook. And because your attention span is sort of starting over and over with each little news bit or what someone's doing.

Yeah, you end up spending forever on there.

That's the thing that makes this to me like a really interesting conversation, because on the surface, if you just have that first half of this conversation and you're like, well, it seems like our attention spans are really long. If I could, you know, be on YouTube for two hours. But that's not that's not the reality. Like, what it means is it's actually making our attention span shorter because, like, we are constantly starting something over.

Right.

You have that constant feed into your brain that burst of whatever those hormones are that like that satisfaction like burst. Right. Like, oh, I'm starting something new. Oh, this is new. Oh, this is new because you're going to the next video. The next post. The next link. Right. So yeah. You're like on the screen or on the computer or on your phone for two hours, but you're not using the Kindle app reading a book for that length of time, right.

Yeah. Advertisements are a really good example of that. Every now and then I'll see one of my children watching an advertisement. And so I'm more cognizant of the images that are flashing and how fast they are. It doesn't stay on one image for more than half a second, and it's like flashing images at you and and more graphics and sounds. And so it's such an explosion of sensory activity that I feel like every advertisement they watch shortens their attention span.

Definitely. Definitely. I want to point out an awesome word you just used to our listeners to be cognizant of something, to be mindful, to notice, to think about something intentionally.

I love that verb.

So I have actually started to experiment with ways to improve upon this and not not fall into the habit of being glued to my screen for too long. Guys, on so many devices, you can set timers. Now, I know on my Android device there's a digital well being, like there's a whole section of digital wellbeing tools that you can find in settings.

So I recommend setting timers and also have have one day a week where, you know, everybody in the family has to put their phone in a box in the kitchen. Yeah. And not look at it all day.

Right. I think if I set a one hour timer on Facebook or Instagram, I think I would be shocked when it goes off to realize I've spent an hour on there because it will feel like a few minutes. I know this is true because when I look at the screen time usage and it shows me how much time I've spent in the week, I'm always like, this can't be right.

There's no way I spent 16 hours this week on social media.

That can't be right. You guys. Time is so bendy, right? Time is so is so subjective that it can feel slow or fast. It's so tough to measure.

Our brains don't understand time and any realistic way.

OK, so how can this notion of being glued to something impact our lives in other ways besides just, you know, these digital habits we're talking about to get your English fluency score, go to all ears, English dot com and click the button.

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All I could think about at work for your job, if you think of someone who isn't being promoted, you know, maybe she's not moving up because she's glued to her own ideas of what's right and doesn't listen to anyone else.

I love it. Yes. So this is obviously like a negative judgment, right? Sure. I like describing it as being stuck in the past as well. Right. And, yeah, this is something that I mean, personally, you definitely don't want to be glued to the past and also like as a company.

Right. Like, I know this is the beginning of twenty, twenty one at all English. We're talking about how we can move forward and keep being dynamic also as like we talked about before, people and relationships. So friends can be glued together if they hang out every day, you know, partners, different romantic relationships, they can be glued together. But honestly, I like the attached at the hip one better. Yes.

It's fun to say when I was just thinking about we also say someone's married to something like that. Whatever the job you would say she's married to, her ideas won't change. Right.

Which is a little more specific to being stubborn when you're like stuck with an idea and won't change your mind.

And that makes me think of how we can maybe make fun of our friends sometimes. Like to talk like a kid is fun sometimes. Right. And so if a friend is like, oh, my gosh, I love that new show, blah, blah, blah, and then I can say, well, why don't you marry it?

It's just like a really fun comeback. Guys, if you know any native speakers, this would make them laugh so. Well, that's true.

We used to say that all the time as kids. Why don't you marry it then? I still like James that I say that to each other just because it's hilarious that it's really very funny. All right.

So what do you think what are like the positive and negative aspects about these various habits we've talked about today? Almost like addictions in a way, right. If it's this extreme notion of being glued to something, what do you think, Aubrey, when that when it comes to lifestyle, there is suddenly a negative connotation.

If you're for the most part, I think to say like someone's glued to their couch or glued to their phone, most addictions aren't great, right?

I don't I try to think about using this, be like, oh, she's glued to healthy eating. No, we don't really use it for positive things.

It's more for addictions to things that are good for us. Yeah, for sure.

I agree. I think this is usually used to have a negative connotation, guys. It's definitely more of a judgment than anything else. Right? Right. You're you're just you're saying that this person does too much of something and it's unhealthy. Sorry, guys. I mean, with that simple definition, I am sure listeners, you can think of a myriad of examples, right? Something we do too much that is unhealthy for us. But yeah, that last example, I think is very common.

That's something that we do say to be glued to your couch right now, guys. I hear students say couch potato all the time. That's fine. I mean, we still say that. But this other phrase to be glued to the couch, like, that's more interesting.

Yeah, yeah. That couch potato, there's another patio hip.

Just the glue. Yeah.

We would say like the glue that holds something together. She's the glue that holds this family together.

That's positive. Yes.

Which it still with glue but with a very different meaning so that it's somebody who I think I'm, I'm this way a little bit because I'm a peacemaker.

So if I have siblings that are fighting, I will reach out to both of them to try and make it right. And so I've been told this before, like, oh, you're the glue that holds the family together.

So if we just take a quick look before we finish up today, guys, at the grammatical difference, they're right, because not only is the meeting different to be glued to something, that's the phrasal verb, right? You're glued to something.

So if we take out that, too, and it's just by itself, it's a whole different meaning, right. To be the glue that does something. That is the structure we use it in. So it is often used as that same example. Right. Aubrey, is the glue that holds her family together. You could say that this person in the office is the glue that holds your team together or the whole company together. So any any person that is the the linchpin to the operation.

So let's summarize for our audience here, Aubrey. What are the amazing takeaways we want our listeners to remember?

So we taught you some new vocabulary with the word glue, and we kind of had a little bit of a philosophical discussion about today's society, how we can be very addicted to technology, ways to fight that. I love the idea of a social media timer. I am going to implement that.

And yeah, you guys should try these out. Just using these and if you also feel like you might be a little addicted to technology, the technology, you could try out some of the fixes to and make a goal to improve in that.

Yes, I love it. This is counterintuitive to the advice we just gave you. But guys, I'm going to ask you to do one more thing on the screen.

So we want you guys to find out what your English level is right now according to your goal. And this is just step one, guys, and then you can get off the screen and reach that goal, but know where you're starting and get some free resources we made just for you guys, whether it's business general fluency or ILD, we have a quiz and resources just for you at your level. So go right now. Take a short quiz, guys.

I promise you will not keep you glued to the screen for more than like 10 minutes. Go to English dot com quiz.

And this can actually help you in this goal because I know that some of our listeners out there find themselves stuck in this rabbit hole of all the information online. And a lot of it isn't even at the right level for you.

You don't know where to start. So this quiz, whether you're interested in business, English, general fluency, or else you can take a quiz and know where to start, what you should be focusing on so that you can reduce the time spent wasted in these rabbit holes.

Exactly. Oh, thank you. Thank you for tying that up so everything can match and go together now. I love it so much. All right, guys, remember, you can hear more from Aubrey and me over at the ILT side, Illes Energy. Subscribe to that podcast. And of course, if you're not a subscriber to Eglash, subscribe here as well.

All right, Aubrey, I will see you tomorrow. Yes, bye bye.

Thanks for listening to all ears English. If you are taking ILT this year, get your estimated band with our two minute quiz. Go to all ears English dot com, slash my score. And if you believe in connection, not perfection, then hit. Subscribe now to make sure you don't miss anything. See you next time.