The internet is a treasure trove of information and knowledge and there's so much content out there available for free!
Whether you want to play some classic games or take college courses or pick up new skills, the online world is your oyster.
After Redditor StrlA asked the online community, "What is something free from the internet everyone should take advantage of?" people revealed all the best places you could go to challenge your mind or just kill some time.
"I bring to you..."
I bring to you Radio Garden, my friend.
Radio stations from around the globe. Just spin it a bit and click where you want to get a list of radio stations from that country. Great for people who like foreign music, language learners, or people looking to reconnect with something "back home."
"Their goal..."
The Freecycle Network: a free to sign-up/nonprofit website that helps people give away free stuff that they don't need to people who need it in their local town/neighborhood. Their goal is to promote re-use of goods that would otherwise go into landfills.
"If you haven't seen the depressing commercials..."
Goodrx. If you haven't seen the depressing commercials, this is an app that gives you discounts on prescription medications. My dog has epilepsy and I save about $200 a month on his pills.
"It's created..."
Turbotaxsucksass.com
It's created by Hasan Minhaj with a list of websites to file free taxes with direct links instead of misleading users to paying.
Hasan Minhaj talks about it in his Patriot Act Volume 6 episode "Why Doing Taxes Is So Hard."
"Another online use..."
EdX
Its completely free online courses (usually 2-6 weeks per course) taught by professors from top notch universities from all over the world (Harvard, MIT, Stanford, Oxford). It's just like taking classes from a university (with assignments, lectures to watch, etc.) and the courses are varied and interesting.
Another online use people don't think about is LIBRARIES. Go to your local library, get a card, and you get a huge selection of books right on your phone, Kindle, laptop, etc. You check out the books online and you get them on your device for 3 weeks usually. The book then deletes itself, but you can check the book back out if need be. It's completely free.
"Not exactly box office hits..."
Tubi TV. It has a ton of movies. Not exactly box office hits but its got movies and they change every month. Ive watched movies like Fury and Airplane! on there. Best part is you can get it in phone laptop, and Ps4 as far as i know of. 100% free, 100% recommend.
"This is more of a novelty website..."
This is more of a novelty website to kill some time, but I think it's pretty cool and you can easily lose yourself for hours with nostalgia. It basically uses YouTube videos to simulate watching TV in 90s and you can specify what year you want and what categories you want to see when you change channels.
There is also a My 80s TV and a My 70s TV and the dev has said they are considering building one for the 2000s.
"I always love the opportunity..."
I always love the opportunity to be able to talk about http://archive.org because it is such a wonderful and free resource.
It has millions of free downloads for music, movies, books, software, etc. One very popular example is that it is home to a very large catalog of Grateful Dead recordings
There is also The Internet Arcade where you can play a lot of classic games along with the Console Living Room which is similar. They have access to tons of old PC games too and you can even play the original Oregon Trail online. There's a lot more in their software section too.
It also has The WayBack Machine which has archived more than 451 billion web pages saved so you can go back and see how websites were years ago. For example, here's reddit on July 25, 2005 a month after it was created.
"You can search..."
Wordhippo! It is, hands down, the best online thesaurus ever. You can search synonyms and antonyms, and it includes slang, explicit language, and multi-word phrases, all of which are typically excluded in other thesauruses I've used. This feature lets you find both more specific/academic/professional words and more general/slang/colloquial words. It's saved my sanity in term papers and texts alike. When you search a word or phrase, you get a page that breaks down synonyms by meaning and part of speech (check out this page for "live," with 11 verb usages, 13 adjective usages, and 3 adverb usages).
"If there's a popular public domain book..."
Free language immersion programs. I'm not just talking about Duolingo.
• Tandem and HelloTalk are FREE language exchange apps. You put in the language you're learning and it connects you with native speakers that want to learn your native language. I've heard of people having problems with speakers using it as a dating app, but I've never had that happen myself.
• There are language immersion Discord servers for nearly any language you want to learn. You can usually just google it and find one somewhere. Subreddits for languages oftentimes have their own discord servers.
• Google Chrome has several extensions that will translate phrases for you, teach you new words, etc. without any extra effort. You're practically learning a language every time you use the internet. (Edit: Gloss, Kypsis, and Langulearn are good ones!)
• If there's a popular public domain book in English, chances are, it's been translated and is in public domain in other languages. Usually when learning a language, I'll try to be able to read The Little Prince by the end of my first year of learning—which isn't public domain everywhere but is still easy to find, never too expensive, and usually easy to read.
Want to "know" more? Never miss another big, odd, funny, or heartbreaking moment again. Sign up for the Knowable newsletter here.
