Social media and loneliness
This is a model answer written to show what a Band 7 response looks like against the marking criteria. It is a worked example, not a graded submission. To see your own band, paste your writing into the free checker.
The prompt
Although social media is designed to connect people, many users report feeling lonelier than ever. What are the causes of this problem, and what measures could help to solve it?
Band 7 model answer (269 words)
It is one of the strange results of the digital age that platforms built for connection leave many of their users feeling isolated. This essay examines why social media can deepen loneliness and suggests what individuals and companies could do about it.
The first cause is that online interaction often replaces, rather than adds to, time spent with people in person. Scrolling through a feed feels social, so users satisfy the urge for company without receiving any of its real benefits, and friendships that live only in comments and likes stay shallow. A second cause is comparison. Feeds show other people's celebrations, holidays and successes, edited and filtered, and against that highlight reel an ordinary evening at home can feel like failure and exclusion.
Several measures could reduce the damage. On a personal level, the most effective step is to use these platforms as a bridge to real contact: arranging a meeting, joining a local group, sending a voice message instead of a like. Treating social media as a diary of other people's lives is what isolates; treating it as an address book does the opposite. Platforms themselves could also help by making time-spent figures visible and by designing feeds that prompt users towards events and communities nearby rather than celebrity content.
Schools have a role too. Lessons that explain how feeds are curated would help teenagers compare themselves less harshly.
In conclusion, social media breeds loneliness when it substitutes for real contact and fuels comparison, but deliberate personal habits, better platform design and honest education can turn it back into the connecting tool it was meant to be.
Why this reaches Band 7
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Task Response
Two causes and a matched set of solutions, with the key Band 7 feature: each solution answers a named cause. The bridge-versus-diary idea directly tackles substitution, and the education point tackles comparison.
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Coherence and Cohesion
Causes and solutions are cleanly separated, and the short schools paragraph extends the solutions without wandering. The contrast sentence ("what isolates... does the opposite") ties the argument together elegantly.
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Lexical Resource
Memorable, precise phrasing such as "highlight reel", "a bridge to real contact" and "how feeds are curated", used to argue rather than to decorate.
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Grammatical Range and Accuracy
Complex sentences with parallel structures and a well-controlled semicolon contrast, and errors are rare enough not to distract.
The one fix to reach Band 7
Band 6 problem and solution essays typically offer generic fixes like "people should use social media less". The change that earns 7 is specificity: tie each solution to the exact cause it addresses, so the essay reads as an argument rather than two unrelated lists.
Now check your own answer.
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