Tips to mentally survive online only for the next bit
People are going stir crazy and social media combined with social isolation and panic are not helping at all. Schools are cancelled, probably for the remainder of the year, kids are home, vacations cancelled, lots of dread and people feeling like they’re in jail.
So, instead of seeing this as a punishment, the end of the world, etc… learn something new. Stop reading the doom and gloom and learn a new skill. That massive stack of books you’ve got, go ahead and break into the one you never had time for.
Some fun things we’ve done at the King Household – restarted a meetup club that everyone got too bust for using Zoom video conferencing (free while virus,) got our oldest back on ABCMouse (free while virus,) and a couple of other educational activities, started attacking the junk drawer our entire house has become after the nearly 7 year invasion of the candy snatchers.
Open a virtual window to your parents or grandparents on a laptop, smart home video assistant, phone, etc… talk to them like they’re in the other room. Smart displays are great for that. Conference call your friends and just talk. No agenda.
Churches, WWE Summer Slam, and other mass gatherings have been moved to online. There’s going to be a huge snowstorm covering much of the middle of the country that may well make it next to impossible to do anything whatsoever to add a better reason.
Use a park. Pick up litter in your neighborhood. Mow your lawn. Mow your neighbor’s lawn.
Read a book. Eat better. Take a walk. Study philosophy. Overthrow whatever ideas you have now. You’ve got time for you. At least for a little while. Make the you that comes through this a better version.
We all have more technology in our houses now capable of communicating sans virus than Hollywood and the CIA had in 1998. Time to use it effectively while the internet holds.
Or, you know, go stir crazy and call this a conspiracy while drinking every drop of alcohol within arm’s reach, because that’s something else.
I’d love it if you’d post links to your favorite educational and interesting tools, videos, etc.
Here are a couple of mine:
Technology Connections – detailed explanations of some interesting tech (such as why that magnet in a rice cooker disconnects when the rice is done)
The King of Random – let’s do something and see what happens.
Honest Trailers from Screen Junkies – maybe not particularly educational, but does make you rethink some things.
But yeah, you’re bored, master a skill, reach out to a depressed or scared friend. Wear sunscreen.
