Time Wasters

Sometimes it’s hard to find something to do on weekends, if you’re not going out with friends or buying something new at the shops. It can be tough to save money, no one is denying it! Luckily, being an introverted member of Gen-Z, I am an expert in not going out, and am here to share my secrets. 

It’s really easy to say ‘read a book!’ When was the last time you actually did read a book when you were bored? It can be hard to sit down with a physical book, because it can feel too purposeful, too much a waste of time and money. Some people also experience a sort of burnout when reading, a stress that comes from ‘reading the wrong books’, or not reading enough, meaning it becomes more panic enducing than anything like a hobby. For some reason, reading threads on the internet can be more relaxing than reading a paper book, and here are some of the most exciting time wasters that you can find on the web. 

Sometimes, falling down the rabbit hole of unsolved mysteries can be fascinating. I’ve definitely spent hours lit up by the blue-glow of a computer screen trying to solve the greatest cold cases of our time. Here are just a few wild Wikipedia pages for you to get sucked into when you need to spend a day at home. 

The Tamam Shud Case

This one is a personal favourite. A man no one recognises is found dead on a beach in Australia, with no identifying marks other than the last line of a Persian poem in his pocket. The case bears startling resemblance to other missing person cases throughout the years, leading some people to believe that the Tamam Shud case is just a hallmark of a serial killer, or some sort of spy code. Either way, the case twists and turns in unexpected ways (rare DNA matches? Secret baby? All the labels on his clothes removed?), and before you know it you’re down the rabbit hole of the lost identity of the Somerton man! 

The Hum

The world is a weird place. From the platypus being an egg laying mammal, to the northern lights, there are so many strange and unexplained phenomena that we brush off as the everyday. One thing that continues to puzzle scientists to this day is ‘The Hum’, a strange and unexplaine frequency that people can hear at certain times of day. Totally unexplained and unexplainable, plenty of people have tried to come up with answers for it. Aliens? Distant machinery? Ghosts? No one knows. That doesn’t stop us from reading the Wiki article for it, though, and trying to convince ourselves that our room is silent. 

Spontaneous human combustion

As a child, I was really quite scared of spontaneous human combustion. It was up there with the Bermuda triangle and quicksand in terms of things that I thought would feature a lot more in my adult life than they actually do. (Incidentally, those are also two really interesting Wikipedia pages to get stuck into, too!) You can’t exactly avoid spontaneous human combustion in the same way you can avoid the other two, though, and this Wikipedia article hasn’t exactly assuaged my fears on the topic. It’s a great read, though, especially when you look at how all the cases are so similar — nothing in their immediate area was burnt, no cause for concern. It really doesn’t do much to reassure you that spontaneous human combustion won’t feature much in your life in the future.