🦩Too many "and"s 🦩

This is one of the most common problems I have to point out. The sentence below, which is from a student's essay, contains four (!).

📝 "The convenience and efficiency of digital tools often tempts people to connect with friends and family via instant messengers or video calls instead of investing time and effort in organising personal meetings and shared activities."

When I ask students to rephrase, their go-to solution is typically "as well as" or the like. But this wouldn't be a good sentence either:

📝 "The convenience along with efficiency of digital tools often tempts people to connect with friends as well as family via instant messengers or video calls instead of investing time together with effort in organizing personal meetings coupled with shared activities."

The real problem is not "and." The real problem is that we are snowed under with nouns.

This is a much better rewrite:

📝 "The convenience of digital tools often tempts people to connect with others via instant messengers or video calls instead of engaging in shared activities in person."

Other rewrites? Share in the comments.