Wasting Time on the Internet

By Erika Siebring

If the Internet is famous for one thing, it's for being a bazaar of sorts for creative, unique and oddly strange content. Most of this content, I'd say, either takes the form of relatable images or pictures (more widely known as memes), or of funny websites that are arguably pointless.

However, in relity, who's to say what is pointless? If something makes you happy, is it pointless? If something makes you happy, is the time you spend on it considered "wasted" time? I choose to believe it is not.

Thus, I unapologetically present to you the following amusing webpages, in hopes they will amuse you as well.

Giphy

Anyone who has spent any matter of time online is familiar with two things: memes and gifs. A gif is very similar to a meme in that it deals with a very funny and very relatable aspect of life, but there is one major difference: gifs are animated.

Gifs are useful in that they add a little bit of fun to everyday life. I personally use a gif whenever I send an administrative email to my fellow students. Why? It's fun! It adds character. It adds humor. It encapsulates a relatable feeling that makes the email just a little bit brighter. For example, I send a gif of a sleepy kitten when I send a morning email, because I know my peers are very relaxed and sleep in on the weekends.

Gifs are amusing in that they are a visual representation of a certain feeling; they are engaging and make everything more appealing -- even administrative emails.

I'm telling you, you should add a little fun to your life.

How Many Goats?

Like I say above, some of the best parts about the Internet don't serve practical purposes. I mean, nowadays, does anyone really need to know how many hypothetical goats they are worth? Probably not. But am I going to take the test, find out anyway, and laugh about it with my friends? You bet I am.

Now given this test is for how many adult goats a person is worth, and not baby goats -- because I am personally worth around 20 baby goats -- it's still a great conversation starter. It's such an odd comparison but it's really funny, particularly when you start thinking about what would make your supposed worth go up.

This is just a webpage where you look at it and think "why not?" I mean, someone actually went to the trouble of making this website. That's dedication right there.

So, the question remains: how many goats are you worth?

The Useless Web

The title of this webpage more or less explains itself. With the click of a button, your browser can generate a random useless webpage in a separate tab. Because. . .why not?

I liken this website to iwastesomuchtime.com in that it's essentially the entrance to a rabbit hole. You could spend god knows how many hours just clicking the button over and over again -- you never know what you're gonna get. Maybe it's a block of blinking text, or a short cartoon. Maybe it's actually funny or maybe it's just weird. That's the simple beauty of this webpage.

Like I said, if you spend your time doing something that entertains you, it is not "wasted" time. You could even create webpages like this -- ones that may not serve a purpose, but exist just for the sake of existing.

Where on the Internet will you land?