With school starting and the global situation, it can be easy to get exhausted with everything happening. Thankfully, the internet is chock-full of fun pick-me-ups that can brighten even the worst of days. Here are five fun little things you can do to bring you joy this semester, whether you’re taking online classes, in-person classes, or a combination of both.
- Revamp your desktop background and lock screens
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You’re going to have to be on your computer all day every day for classes, so why not make it fun and interesting? Grab your favourite pictures from the internet and throw together something fun and aesthetic using PicsArt. The app has cute stickers that you can add to make your desktop unique so it brings a smile to your face even when classes are dragging you down.
- Play Pictionary against your friends or complete strangers
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Skribbl.io is a great site that allows you to play Pictionary on your computer. You can play against your friends with a private room, or jump in with complete strangers. For me personally, I like to play with my extended family and we use our own list of pop culture words to keep things entertaining. The best part of the game? You don’t need to leave your bed.
- Get a touchbar or desktop pet
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Early last semester my friend made me get a Touchbar Pet for my Mac and honestly nothing brings me more joy than feeding the cute cat during classes and watching it sleep adorably while I take notes. No Mac? No problem because there is also a Desktop Goose that I have heard many good things about. He’s a little more distracting than a touchbar pet, but based on the many hilarious videos I’ve seen, he’ll definitely provide a laugh during boring Zoom lectures.
- Trade writing for cats (or puppies, or bunnies)
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Written Kitten is a website that pulls up an image of a cat, dog, or bunny every 100, 200, 500, or 1000 words. I use it to draft my Canvas discussions so if the page reloads my work doesn’t get lost. Even if your computer restarts, your work gets saved (in my experience, though, please save your work), so I would definitely recommend using it. Besides, who isn’t motivated by pictures of small animals?
- Discover new artists to study to
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It’s hard to find music to listen to, let alone new music, because who has time to listen to a bunch of new albums that you may not even like? Thankfully Gnoosic comes to the rescue by asking you to list artists you already listen to and suggesting artists you may not have heard before. Perfect for those times when you’re studying and you don’t know what to play.