Samples / Task 2 essay / Discuss both views / Band 6

Social Media Effects on Young People Wellbeing

An IELTS Academic Task 2 essay discussing the benefits and damaging effects of social media on young people, written at a Band 6 level.

The question

Some people believe that social media has a damaging effect on the wellbeing of young people. Others think the benefits outweigh the harm. Discuss both views and give your own opinion.

Nowadays, social media is very popular around the world. Some people believe that social media has an damaging effect on the wellbeing of young people, while others think that the benefits are more than the harm. In my opinion, I am agree that social media can cause damage but it also has many benefits for young people if they use it carefully. On the one hand, there are several reasons why social media is damaging. Firstly, many young people spends too much time on their phones, which make them feel lonely and unhealthy. For example, they look at other people lives and feel bad about themselves. This can lead to depression and other mental health problems. Secondly, cyberbullying is another big problem on social media. Some teenagers says mean things to their classmates online, which can cause serious emotional damage. Consequently, many parents are worry about the damaging effects of these platforms on their children. On other hand, social media also has many benefits. One of the main benefits is that it allows young people to connect with friends and family who live far away. They can share photos and talk to each other easily. Furthermore, social media can be a good tool for education. Students can join study groups and find useful informations for their homework. This shows that the benefits of social media are very important for modern life, and we cannot ignore them. In conclusion, although social media can be damaging to the wellbeing of young people, I believe that the benefits outweigh the disadvantages. If young people learn how to manage their time and use social media in a responsible way, they can enjoy all the benefits without suffering from the damage. Therefore, education is the key to solve this problem.

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This answer was written by a language model to a real exam question, then scored by Bandly against the four public band descriptors. The band is a software estimate. No examiner has marked it, and the band a real examiner would award may differ. Scored with google/gemini-3.5-flash on 2026-09-08.

Estimated overall

Mean of the four criteria, rounded the way the exam rounds it.

Task Response 7

Band 7 because you clearly address both views and state your opinion, but some ideas are only generally developed rather than fully extended and supported.

Coherence and Cohesion 6

The response arranges information and ideas coherently with a clear overall progression, but some cohesive devices are used mechanically, and referencing is not always clear.

Lexical Resource 5

You use a limited range of vocabulary, and make noticeable errors in word formation and spelling that can cause some difficulty for the reader.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy 6

The response uses a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, but frequent errors in grammar and punctuation sometimes reduce communication.

What would take this higher

To improve your lexical resource score, you need to expand your vocabulary range and eliminate repetitive errors in word formation and spelling. For instance, you should correct errors like "an damaging" to "a damaging," "informations" to the uncountable "information," and the phrase "I am agree" to "I agree." Addressing these specific vocabulary mistakes and incorporating more precise, topic-specific terms will help elevate this criterion to a band 6.

Find out what this essay would score

Paste your own answer and Bandly returns an estimated band for each of the four criteria, with the sentences that pulled the score down. Under a cent an essay, about six seconds.

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