What things to do when bored on the Internet
The possibilities of things you can do are endless when it comes to the Internet. There should be no reason to be bored. Below is a full list of our top suggestions of things to do on the Internet.
Learning and research
The Internet contains an endless supply of information, answer questions, learn more about something you enjoy, or learn something new. Using any popular search engine, you can find anything or use one of the following links.
- Wikipedia, Wikibooks, and Encyclopedia of Life are great examples of community-driven wikis that have a wealth of information generated by contributors.
- E-books – Hundreds of thousands of books have been scanned and available on the Internet. Visit this page to see a list of sites of where you can find free e-books.
- Academic Earth and Khan Academy have thousands of online lectures that can be watched on many different topics.
Multimedia – Music, radio, podcasts, videos, vlogs, and webcam
With more users using broadband, multimedia websites are becoming a popular destination. Although modem users can do almost all of the below suggestions, these may not be as enjoyable with a slow connection. Below is our favorite multimedia related pages on the Internet.
Videos
Videos are also now becoming a great source of entertainment on the Internet. Below are a few locations where you can watch videos of all types.
- Google video, YouTube, and Vimeo are a great starting points for posting and viewing videos online.
- If you want to watch inspiring and educational videos, we highly recommend starting at TED.
- Watch TV shows and movies on the Internet – Full listing of sites to watch TV shows, movies, and other related videos on the Internet.
- Sites like eBaum’s World, Motherboard.tv, and VideoSift are other great places with communities of users who find and vote on the best videos.
- Do you enjoy playing or watching computer games? Sites like Twitch allows you to watch and interact with millions of other people playing computer games.
- Homestarrunner – A funny and often witty site that contains a collection of short animated comedy clips.
- Where can I post my pictures, movies, or other files online for free?
Webcam
Online webcams allow you to peer into almost any other part of the world. There are millions of online webcams around the world and many sites that allow users to communicate via webcam.
- EarthCam – Our favorite and in our opinion, the best place to find live webcams from around the world.
Images and Art
- Flickr – By far, one of the most used and respected image sites on the Internet that allows everyone to upload, share, and view pictures of almost everything.
- DeviantArt – A fantastic page that contains an extensive collection of community uploaded art and pictures.
Radio or streaming audio
Internet radio and streaming audio is another fantastic service for broadband users. Today, many audio player programs, such as Microsoft Windows Media Player, Winamp, and the iTunes player, include a radio function. Opening these programs allows you to play radio stations for nearly any music type you can imagine. There are other options as well, including streams of radio stations in your local area. Below is a short listing of some of these sites.
- Pandora – A fantastic service that allows you to specify a song or artist you like and then generate a live radio station based on the songs you enjoy.
- Slacker, Radio-locator, and Live365 are all fantastic sites that allows you to find radio stations and top streaming music.
- Last.fm – Yet another fantastic site for finding more about music artists, listening to radio stations, finding related artists, etc.
Find and purchase music
With the introduction of MP3 files, downloadable music is another very popular thing to do on the Internet. Below is a short list of some of the services that allow users to download music from thousands of different artists legally.
- Amazon MP3, iTunes, and Napster are all great music services to browse, purchase, and legally download music.
Music lyrics
There are many different pages to find the lyrics to any of your favorite songs. Try Lyrics.com to find your favorite song lyrics.
Podcasts and talk radio
Internet podcasts and talk radio shows are radio broadcasts where one or more people talk about something they enjoy, news, a service, etc. See our podcast page for a selection of computer-related podcasts.
Vlog
A vlog, or video log, is similar to a blog, except it is a video. See the vlogging definition for additional information about this term and vlog services.
TV and movie research
One of the most interesting and informative locations on the Internet for movie information such as cast names, directors, year made, awards, etc. is IMDb (short for Internet movie database). Want to browse through movie posters back to 1913, try IMP Awards. How about getting the full script of movies? Try IMSDb.
Games and entertainment
Online games are another popular Internet activity enjoyed by people of all ages. Many online games are played by visiting a website. Below is a listing of some of these sites.
- Steam is an online digital distribution platform where users can download free and low-cost games to a computer.
- MSN Games, Miniclip, Pogo, iWin, Shockwave, and Newgrounds are all great pages containing thousands of free online games for users of all ages. These games are often done in Flash, Shockwave, or Java and can be played through your browser without having to download and install the game.
- Second Life – A fascinating online world that you can connect to freely, where hundreds of thousands of other real people have created a place to live, shops, clothing, worlds, and more.
- FreeSlots – A free and somewhat addicting site that has many different online playable slot machines.
- Penny-arcade, Dilbert and xkcd are a few of the thousands of different available comics online.
- Google Fight – Another fun site that allows you to enter any two words or phrases to fight against each other. The winner is decided by the most results returned by Google.
There are thousands of additional online game sites. Searching for “online games” or “flash games” return an almost endless supply of games. Also, see this popular forum post on our site for other free downloadable games.
Improve yourself
Improve yourself and your abilities by practicing what you are not good at or watch how-to videos. Below are some different examples.
- There are lots of places you can ask questions and find answers about any topic. For example, learn a new language, how to play an instrument, how to dance, how to cook, or improve in a sport.
- HowStuffWorks – Ever wonder how something works, this is your site. HowStuffWorks goes into great deal on how things in the world work.
- Mental_floss – Another great page that gives you fascinating tidbits of knowledge every day, brain teasers, and more.
- Learn to type – Type slow? Practice typing and read through our suggestions on learning how to type faster.
- 43 Things – Post and share your goals with others, see the most popular goals, and work with the community in completing your life goals.
Shop online stores and auctions
Internet shopping is another popular and fun thing to do on the Internet. Below are a few examples of popular online stores, auction sites, and other retail related pages.
- Giveaway of the Day – Great site that gives something away free each day.
- Woot – Lists the best deal on the Internet daily.
- FindGift – A fantastic site to get ideas or find unique gifts for anyone or any occasion.
- CamelCamelCamel – Website and service that tracks and graphs the price history of products on Amazon, Newegg, and Best Buy helping you get the best price.
- eBay – The most popular auction location and website on the Internet. Allows any user to buy and sell almost anything to millions of other users from around the world.
- Amazon – The largest retail site on the Internet that sells books, DVDs, games, electronics, toys, clothing, and much more.
- RetailMeNot – A site that lists coupons to major retail and online stores.
- Google shopping – Formerly known as Froogle, Google shopping is a free service provided by Google that allows users to search millions of different online stores for the best price on almost any product.
- iTunes – One of the most popular destinations to download music for Apple iPod.
Directions, maps, and geographic information
Finding directions and getting maps to almost anywhere in the world is also becoming another popular destination on the Internet. See the map definition for a listing of some of the services.
Find a date or locate a local event
Find a date
There are several online dating sites and sites that help people meet new friends. One of our favorite place’s that does both is PlentyOfFish.
Away from computer
There are many of online services that lists local events, meetings, and reviews in your area of the World. Some of our favorites are Meetup and Yelp.
Keep up with current events
There are millions of news sites around the world to keep up with current events. However, there are a few gems among them. Below are our favorites.
- Google News – Another fantastic Google service that gathers news articles from everywhere on the Internet and organizes them into a page of easy to read headlines.
- Popurls – A site that brings all the most popular web pages articles to one large listing.
- TED – Great site that brings the smartest people in the world to share ideas and thoughts that are both informative and inspirational.
- Ignite– A series of short, educational presentations.
- FARK – A great site that takes all the news headlines from around the world and puts them in an easy to read and follow format.
- Newsmap – Fantastic site that takes Google news and prints it out on a map-like format showing most popular stories in a larger format.
Communicate in chat, e-mail, forums, IM, blogs, and VoIP
Communicating with friends, family, and other people all over the world is one of the most popular things to do on the Internet. Below are common ways to do this.
Social networking
Social networking sites are the most popular destination for Internet users of all ages. These places help you create a presence on the Internet and connect with all your current and past friends, family, and co-workers. One of the most popular social networking sites today and a great place to start is Facebook and Twitter. See the social networking definition for other alternatives.
Chat
Chat is a popular method of having a live text communication with other users who are interested in the same things you are. See the chat definition for further information and examples of places to chat on the Internet.
E-mail is by far one of the most popular methods of communicating on the Internet. If you do not have an e-mail address or want an additional e-mail address, consider setting up a webmail account. See the webmail definition for further information and examples.
Forums and bulletin boards
A forum is a place for users to post questions, messages, and other conversations and allow hundreds and even thousands of users to participate in something they enjoy. For example, the Computer Hope forum is a location where users can ask questions about computers and talk about computers. Search for a board relating to a topic you are interested in and become a member. For example, a search for “Acura car forum” would find results for forums relating to the Acura cars.
Blogs
A blog, or weblog, is a location for a person to post a log or diary of their life, or about something they enjoy. See the blog definition for further information about this term and examples of the services you can use to create a blog.
VoIP
Users who have broadband connections can use VoIP to talk to other users all around the world, much like a phone. See the VoIP definition for additional information about this technology and some services that provide it.
Surf and find popular pages
Something most people will find themselves often doing on the Internet is going from one page to another page surfing the Internet. You can find interesting pages to surf by starting at Reddit.
Finally, if you are looking for something, consider searching for it. If you can think of it, it’s almost a definite that it’s on the Internet.
