The internet can be a great educational tool. With search engines like Google making research simpler and quicker and sites like Schoology making requirement submission and contacting teachers easier, our generation has access to many things students of the past didn’t. Did you know, though, that even Tumblr, a popular microblogging and social media website, can be used for education purposes?
On Tumblr, it’s easy to find all sorts of blogs. Any topic you can think of, there’s probably at least one blog about it—whether it be fashion, music, fandoms, positivity, and, of course, schoolwork. Known as “studyblrs” the schoolwork specific blogs share helpful resources, tips, notes, and motivational quotes to help you study and have a better experience as you’re doing it. These blogs will make your life easier, trust me. Here’s how:
They help you track your progress—It’s easy to lose motivation when you feel like you aren’t actually getting anywhere. Studyblrs are the perfect place to post pictures, or even simple text posts listing your accomplishments for the day, week, or any regular period of time. This way you can actually visualize how well you’re doing and how much you’re getting done. One recent trend in the studyblr community is “100 days of productivity”—the goal of which (as you’ve probably guessed) is to do one productive thing for 100 days straight, then make a post about it. Seeing your streak get higher and higher is rewarding, and not wanting to break that chain can help push you to be even more productive.
Get help—We can’t do everything ourselves. If you’re having trouble understanding a subject, it’s relatively easy to find notes someone else has posted or links to tutorials. Otherwise, you could find a blogger who has experience in or is currently studying the subject and send him/her a message to ask for help. The studyblr community is generally supportive and willing to help each other learn and improve, so you shouldn’t have any trouble at all in finding the help or resourses that you need.
Bookmark resources—As previously mentioned, people who run studyblrs will often share their resources with each other. Helpful sites, free online courses, notes, tips, and such things are posted for anyone to find and use. Rather than copying down all the links or visiting each site one by one, you can just click a button and reblog it for future reference. This feature is especially helpful, not only because of its convenience, but because you can sometimes discover more and better resources than you would have found if you had only searched yourself.
Make friends—This is not the main reason behind most studyblrs, but it practically comes hand in hand with maintaining one. In asking for assistance or joining networks (these are basically blog groups you can sign up for so it’ll be easier to find others studying the same things you are), meeting new people is inevitable, and the shared passion and dedication for learning makes it pretty hard to dislike anyone unless they’re dreadfully rude. Everyone in the studyblr community is there to learn and grow, and are happy to share what knowledge they already have. Whether you want to focus on a problematic subject, college preparation, languages, or any other independent studies, you’ll definitely find somebody with the same interests to talk to.
So that’s about it! If you have the time, try and check out a few studyblrs and see if it’s the kind of thing that will work for you. It certainly works for me. And don’t forget, have fun with it!