Before the pandemic, the average person spent a little over three hours online daily, which doubled in the aftermath. The internet is an incredible place, with nearly two billion website pages. And it’s only ever-growing. You know the old saying that you can find anything on the internet. However, it’s easy to lose sight of this and just spend your time browsing the same pages again and again. Social media is one of the chief time eaters. The median time spent browsing social media sites is no less than 147 minutes daily, so two hours and forty-five minutes.
It’s very difficult to reduce your time on these apps because they trigger instant gratification in your brain. They present their content in a way that’s incredibly easy to consume. It’s uncomplicated, and you only need to spend a few seconds to a minute on a single post. It’s easy to fall down a rabbit hole of just scrolling down for hours on end. However, there are many cool and fun things you can do on the internet. If you’d like to give any such activities a chance, take a look at the following suggestions.
Read the news
Of course, you may be beyond tired of hearing about the news. There’s always something unpleasant happening, from unstable political situations to the poor state of the environment to economic problems and recession. Given this load of rather upsetting and distressing information, it makes sense that you’d want to step away from that for a while, disconnect from all the uncertainty and bleakness. Besides, you already have friends and family that start telling you about the news even unprompted, so what’s the point of you reading the news yourself? You’ll hear them anyways, right? Well, wrong. First of all, it’s better to read the news yourself so you can create your own opinions. When you hear the news from someone else, you’re most likely also getting their own thoughts on the subject. They’ve read it themselves and filtered the content. Reading it yourself develops critical-thinking skills and stimulates your cognitive abilities—a win-win situation.
While the news may be hard to swallow at times, remember that you have a duty to be informed as a citizen, and it’s ultimately in your best interest. If you don’t follow the news, you won’t have a good idea of whom to vote for in the upcoming elections, the importance of reducing your carbon footprint or how to stay afloat when inflation rates rise. Yet again.
Join an online course
Just like with the news, you may be rolling your eyes at the idea of an online class. Look, we get it. We all worked or attended classes over the internet during the pandemic, and kept in touch with loved ones through our screens. So it’s natural to want to get out there and study in a physical class. But there are many advantages to online classes. They are more flexible, help you save the money you’d spend on gas or commuting and can help you work on your self-motivation and self-discipline.
There are many classes to choose from depending on what you’d like to study. If you enjoy studying the hard sciences and feel at home in the STEM field, opt for online Chemistry classes. Under the guidance of an expert, you’ll build a strong foundation for your knowledge or significantly improve what you already know. Although the costs of these online courses are significantly smaller compared to their in-real-life counterparts, don’t think this also translates into diminished teaching quality.
Try virtual charity work
You can offer tangible help to your community and the world these days, and you’re only one click away from doing it. There are many NGOs out there looking for your help. Donating to well-known organizations such as the Red Cross, Doctors Without Borders or the United Nations. They offer aid and protection for people in conflict zones struggling with food insecurity and clean water scarcity. You can also help museums such as the Smithsonian by transcribing historical documents or improving the accuracy of Wikipedia pages related to their exhibits. You should also look into ways to help close to home by researching your city or neighborhood issues.
Watch videos
Watching videos is a great way to educate yourself, and a very relaxing pastime rolled into one. But we’re not talking about super short videos or memes here. While it may be challenging for some people’s attention span, it’s best to watch things that have a bit more length to them. Whether this means signing up for an on-demand streaming service where you can access countless movies, TV series, documentaries and shows or find some very interesting educational or relaxing content on YouTube, watching the right visual material can improve your life.
Do some shopping
Few things are as relaxing as a session of online retail therapy. That is, of course, unless you’re buying during a major season sale or on Black Friday. But apart from that, there are so many aspects to love about online shopping. First of all, you have access to many more items than you do in physical shops, for purely logistic reasons. If you’re the type of person who never likes anything they see when shopping, buying online may be the cure. Another huge advantage is the absence of crowds. It can be hectic and even stressful to buy things when surrounded by the buzzing sound of a large mass of people. Yet another benefit lies in the absence of pressure while shopping online. When in-store, the shopkeepers sometimes aim to subtly influence you to buy more than you came to buy. This can manifest in many ways, from the way clothes are arranged on display to the shopkeeper openly suggesting you’d look great with a certain outfit.
Learn a new skill
As we said before, the internet is a place full of educational material. Because of this, you can find tips and tricks to master virtually any skill you can think of. There’s no limit to what you can learn online, from cooking and sewing to coding and photography. There are many blogs and videos that can help you. The only danger you may encounter is starting too many new hobbies and not sticking with them. But don’t worry. You can surely look up ways to manage your time better. The internet has answers for everything, after all.
