Question

what tone was the writer of the following extract adopting?

humorous
sincere
informal
insincere
critical
argumentative

whos watching you?

social media has been with us for less than two decades, yet its anti-social effects - from anxiety and depression to sleeplessness and compulsive behaviour - are becoming obvious. worse, more than 90% of 18 to 24-year-olds spend an average of 2 hours every day (equivalent to an entire month per year without sleep) on social media sites, with some doctors now so concerned that theyve called for social media to come with film-like age restrictions or be labelled with stark warnings similar to those on cigarette packets.

to make matters worse, its now emerged that these same sites have been spying on us and raking in vast profits by selling our personal data to secretive organisations intent on manipulating everything from our shopping habits to our votes.

Explanation:

Analyze the question prompt

The question asks to identify the tone adopted by the writer in the provided extract.

Examine the text content

The text discusses the negative impacts of social media:

• It mentions "anti-social effects - from anxiety and depression to sleeplessness and compulsive behaviour."
• It uses strong negative descriptors: "Worse, more than 90%...", "To make matters worse...", "spying on us", "raking in vast profits", and "secretive organisations intent on manipulating everything".
• This shows the author is pointing out severe flaws, expressing strong disapproval, and highlighting negative consequences.

Evaluate the tone options

Using Reading Comprehension, we analyze the options:

• Humorous: Incorrect. The text deals with serious mental health and privacy issues without any comedic elements.
• Sincere: While the author may believe what they write, "sincere" is too neutral and does not capture the active disapproval and negative judgment of the passage.
• Informal: Incorrect. The passage uses structured, relatively formal journalistic language.
• Insincere: Incorrect. There is no irony or sarcasm suggesting the author does not mean what they say.
• Critical: Correct. The author actively judges, condemns, and highlights the negative aspects ("anti-social effects", "spying", "manipulating") of social media.
• Argumentative: While the text presents an argument, "critical" is a much more precise description of the emotional and judgmental tone (attitude) of the writer toward the subject.

Formulate the final choice

The writer's attitude is highly disapproving and evaluative of the negative impacts, which directly corresponds to a Critical tone.

Answer:

• Humorous
• Sincere
• Informal
• Insincere
• Critical (Correct answer)
• Argumentative