You should spend about 40 minutes on this task.
Write about the following topic:
In some countries, many more people are choosing to live alone nowadays than in the past. Do you think this is a positive or negative development?
Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience.
You should write at least 250 words.
Sample answer 1:
These days many people chose to live alone, especially in metropolitan areas and this rate is far higher in developed countries and seems like this has become quite normal there. I believe this trend has more negative consequences than the few positive outcomes it offers.
The single-person family is seen to be positive from better personal skill development and economic perspective. A single-member family forces a person to learn some basic skills including cooking, cleaning the house, paying the utility bills, managing personal finance, purchasing daily commodities, adopting hobbies and many more important skills. This makes someone self-dependent which has a greater impact on the development of the country in a broader sense. For instance, research shows that students who stay away from home for their tertiary degrees learn more skills and become more self-dependent than pupils who study from home. Moreover, a single-person family member is bound to do a job, business or have some sort of arrangement for a steady earning and this trend has a great positive impact on a country’s economy.
From the opposite viewpoint, the trend of increasing single-person family has many negative consequences. Firstly, the increasing trend of living alone has a direct relationship on the percentage of people suffer from psychological problems these days. Living alone creates loneliness and depression, unlike the traditional family where there are always others to share someone’s distress and sadness. The isolation often leads people to choose a lifestyle that is often negative. A recent study reveals that single-person family members often rely on drugs and many of them become addicted. The human is a social being and living alone is against their natural tendency. For many, bearing the total expenses is tough and this leads them to get involved in crimes.
In conclusion, the number of single-person families is increasing these days and this has some positive aspects despite many severe negative consequences.
Sample answer 2:
In the recent years, most people, particularly in developed countries, likely to opt for living independently. Although living solo come along with several drawbacks, I would consider this more of a positive development.
For several reasons, living alone may have some drawbacks. Firstly, living independently can be extremely costly as life is becoming increasingly complex and property price is just skyrocketing. This has created a difficult situation in finding an accommodation at a reasonable price. For this reason, single occupants may have to work unbelievably hard to make their ends meet. Being a singleton has meant that they cannot expect any financial or moral support from family or relatives in most cases. Lone occupants are more likely to experience depression, anxiety and uncertainty with bearing all household responsibilities on top of pursuing a work life than family-oriented people. As a result, single people tend to lead a hectic as well as burdensome life with having a feeling of being resented and anguished and therefore resulting an unhealthy lifestyle.
On the other hand, I believe that people, leading a life as single dwellers are the luckiest one. A sense of freedom with an acute privacy is something considered as the most desirable element of a happy life. This is the main reason why single occupant tends to be seen as a successful peer of the society. Because living a life on their own allows them to invest a precious time in the development growth and shaping out their personality. Furthermore, single people are likely to attend more public social affairs, thus allowing cities and urban areas to reinvigorate as they spend more money on holiday-making, doing outdoor activities or surfing other services compared to their couple counterparts. Finally, if more people became independent, the more they live greener by living in apartments or near to towns instead of living in suburb houses and commuting to work from far away stretched distances.
To sum up, going solo may have some disadvantages but I would argue that this development should be seen as a progress.
[ Written by – Shamaila Afzal ]