Kayla’s Column — 5 sites to distract from homework
By Kayla McCarty
Let’s be honest. Almost every high school student at DHS spends hours every night pouring over homework. However, homework comes hand in hand with distractions; it’s a simple fact. Because we’d all rather be surfing the web than working, here’s a list of my favorite awesome distractions that I have come across while “doing homework”.
The Swedish Armed Forces — The Team Test
This new site, created by the Swedish Armed Forces in its latest recruitment drive, assigns each team member a color, their identity within the team, and challenges each player with different mind puzzles. The game is built around the idea that a team is only as strong as its weakest link. Each time you complete a challenge, status (aka health) is passed to the person next to you. The longer you take to complete a challenge the less status you pass to your teammates. The average team lasts less than 2 minutes on the site; the HUB editor-in-chief Alex Young lasted just over 2 minutes in his first team. It has yet to be seen if the Swedish Army has gained any troops as a result of the game.
A site introduced to me while working the HUB, Hype Machine, also known as HypeM, is now my favorite source for discovering new artists and remixes. The site does not actually create or provide music, but instead compiles music from the highest rated music blogs on the internet. This creates a continuous stream of awesome music in one place. The bulk of HypeM’s music is of the indie or alternative genre and the songs that are recognized as mainstream are usually remixed or mashed up with other songs. The site is an absolute gold mine for those looking for more than the top 40 singles played on the radio.
If Facebook and Twitter had an affair, Tumblr would be the love child. Tumblr’s popularity is most likely rooted in it’s easy to use interface and accessability. No coding is required when posting or creating the perfect custom layout for the blogs. Tumblr has established a simple way to share anything; you can post text, quotes, links, photos, audio, video, dialogues, slideshows, and more. I find the constant interaction with other users the most appealing aspect of Tumblr. The HUB staff has taken to Tumblr and as a group we have found the reblogging and experience sharing extremely fun. Through the colors, posts and tone, it’s truly surprising how much a simple Tumblr can represent the personality of a person. Find The HUB on Tumblr at: http://dhshub.tumblr.com
The site is the very essence of avoiding homework. Any site on the internet can be a distraction for students, but Stumble Upon acts a generator of infinite distractions all at the touch of a button. A click of the Stumble button brings the stumbler upon a random site. If you like the random site you can bookmark it to save for later time wasting, but if you aren’t fond of the site, just stumble again. The site is the most popular bookmarking site on the internet with over 11 million members. StumbleUpon has brought me to some of the weirdest and most interesting sites I have ever been on, but I send a warning to all potential users: once you begin stumbling, you’ll never be able to stop.
There isn’t much to say about this website, beyond the fact that it is an absolutely awesome way to waste time. Simply add a face to the dancer provided by the site and then control your dancer with obnoxious upbeat music playing in the background. Frankly, the ugly dance is way more amusing than it should be.
