13586 Friendly
TOEFL Independent Writing
Essay Topic: People Are No Longer Friendly
Example Writing by Jeenn Lee Hsieh
ielts360toefl@hotmail.com 谢振礼
TOEFL Writing Prompt:
Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? "People in the past were friendlier than people today". Use reasons and specific examples (based on your knowledge or experience) to support your answer.
Sample Essay: Jeenn Lee Hsieh
Lack of friendliness nowadays is just another example to show that progress is not always good. In today's materialistic society, people have become increasingly indifferent to each other, and hence they are no longer as friendly as people in the past. For that matter, a range of factors may be at work, but none are as critical as modern urbanization and digital mobility.
It goes without saying that, in many cities across the world, strangers are not necessarily friendly to strangers, probably for the absence of mutual trust. This is exactly the case with people immigrating from the rural areas to the more populated urban areas where most neighbors do not know their neighbors, let alone communicate with each other. It was then when the majority of people lived in villages and small towns where friendliness used to be a daily habit. And it is now when people seldom chat with others, not even with those living next door. Moreover, urban life is usually so stressful and resentful that many tend to be rather selfish and self-centered, feeling no need to be friendly at all. As a result, people refuse to be friendly, only to find themselves distressed as well as isolated, to say the least.
No less important is the role the information technology is playing in the society in which people may know the price of everything (e.g. a smartphone) but the value of nothing (e.g. neighborly friendliness). It is obvious that means of fast communication like the mobile phone and the Internet can do little to help people become friendly to each other. So much so, friendly face-to-face contacts are now few and far between. Instead, online connections are popular to such an extreme that it is almost impossible to be 'friendly' in the traditional sense of the word. Once upon a time such technological devices did not exist, as one person ought to travel long distances in order to meet another, necessarily at heart with a smiling face and a friendly hug. These days, however, most people pretend to do the same thing, ironically, before the webcam.
Generally speaking, what with modern urbanization and what with digital mobility, people today are not as friendly as people in the past. Despite of the many material benefits that progress has to offer, people of today's society do not care so much about the spiritual value of friendliness, as did people only half a century ago . (Essay created by Jeenn Lee Hsieh, 谢振礼 pigai essay: ielts360toefl@hotmail.com)
