Like many people of my generation, I am someone who spends a lot of time online – on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter – you name it, I probably have an account and probably spend at least a couple hours a week on it (although not Pinterest yet- that’s one I’m holding out on). But a large part of what I love about the internet is that in the course of ten minutes I can go from looking at gifs of meerkats playing with pumpkins to watching an interview with James McAvoy, and then somehow ending up reading about copyright law and realizing that Virginia Woolf’s work can be public domain in the UK while in the US some of it will still be copyrighted until 2037. The gist of this is that, mixed in with all of the cute animals and celebrity worship is a lot of actual, useful information. So in light of this fact I wanted to share some of the awesome things I have found on the internet recently.

1. This video I just watched actually got me excited about the idea of opening up a retirement savings account…and doing it soon!
2. Poonam’s post about the personal finance workshop she attended during Life After Scripps introduced me to mint.com, where I have now started tracking how much money I’m spending and what I’m spending it on (and hope will motivate me to spend a little less and save a little more!).
3. This article by a man who spoke at the CMC Athenaeum on October 30^th, which is about the perils of being trained for a life of privilege, and why liberal arts schools might be better than Ivy League schools.
4. This terrifying website which lets you know how long it has been since a GOP candidate or supporter has made an inappropriate comment about rape. (don’t worry- it includes links to more information about the particular comments made)
5. This video (same guy as in #1 above) about what the actual difference is between National Debt and “The Deficit” and how they actually do or do not threaten our very existence as much as the media/some politicians make them seem.
6. This article about so-called “Hipster Sexism” and what makes it slightly better than Classic Sexism (but still not great).

The internet is one of the main ways I stay informed. Videos like these ones I’ve linked to teach me about things I might not otherwise learn in so succinct a manner. Sure the issues might get touched on in a class or a CP&R workshop I attend on campus, but it’s very different to find information for yourself, versus having someone directly “teach” it to you. I find that I learn a lot more form the internet than I expect to, just by, for example, getting bored one day and deciding to look at the kinds of jobs Google and Facebook offer to non-computer-programmers. There’s a lot of useful information out there, but sometimes you just need to go out there and find it for yourself.

What kinds of useful information have you stumbled upon online? Has researching things on the internet influenced what kind of career you want to pursue?