IELTS Task 2 sample essay: Making Friends Online
DiscussionTechnology
The question
Some people say that the internet has made it easier to make friends, while others think it has made real friendships harder to form. Discuss both views and give your own opinion.
Try writing your own answer first, then compare. Reading a model before you write tends to make you copy it.
The plan
Position: The internet makes it easier to start friendships but harder to deepen them; it helps most when it leads to meeting in person.
- View A: shared-interest communities and easy contact help shy, isolated or relocated people find friends.
- View B and my view: online contact is easy to keep shallow; real friendship needs time, presence and effort, which screens can crowd out.
Model answer
293 wordsSome people believe the internet has made it easier to make friends, while others think it has made genuine friendship harder to build. In my view, both are partly right: the internet makes it far easier to start friendships, but deeper friendships still depend on effort that technology can either support or replace.
Those who praise internet friendship point to the barriers it removes. A teenager in a small town with an unusual hobby, or an adult who has just moved to a new country, can find people with the same interests in minutes through forums, games and social media. For shy people, writing a message can feel far less frightening than approaching a stranger, and friendships that begin on a screen often lead to meetings in person. Staying in touch has also become effortless, so friends who move away need not drift apart.
Critics, however, argue that the same ease makes friendships thinner. Reacting to a friend's post takes a second, and it can create a feeling of closeness without any of the time or attention that real friendship requires. Hours spent scrolling may replace the evenings when people once met face to face, and a person with hundreds of online contacts can still have no one to call in a crisis. Online, people also present an edited version of their lives, which makes honest connection harder.
I believe the difference lies in what digital contact leads to. When it introduces people who then spend real time together, it enriches friendship; when it becomes a substitute for that time, it weakens it.
In conclusion, the internet has made meeting potential friends easier than ever, but turning those contacts into lasting friendships still requires the time and presence that no technology can supply.
Scored by the MyBandPrep checker on 7 October 2026. An estimate, not an examiner’s mark. How scoring works
Why it works
- Task Response
- Both views are developed with concrete situations, and the opinion is precise: the internet helps start friendships and harms only when it replaces time together.
- Coherence and Cohesion
- A clear structure (view A, view B, judgement) with smooth reference (“the same ease”, “that time”).
- Lexical Resource
- Natural, precise phrases: “drift apart”, “an edited version of their lives”, “no one to call in a crisis”.
- Grammatical Range and Accuracy
- Wide range of accurate complex structures, including a balanced “when…; when…” sentence.
Phrases worth reusing
- the barriers it removes
- drift apart
- no one to call in a crisis
- an edited version of their lives
- the time and presence that no technology can supply
Now write your own
Answer this question in 40 minutes and get an estimated band with the sentences to fix.