Summer tends to come with more open time: slower mornings, longer evenings, days that don't have to go anywhere in particular. The Internet can fill that time in all sorts of ways. There’s a lot of interesting corners of the Internet that often go overlooked, that have the potential to make a fun summer afternoon.

1. Take a free online course

Platforms like Coursera, edX, and Khan Academy offer college-level courses for free (or cheap). MIT, Stanford, and Yale all post full course materials publicly. Pick a subject you've always been curious about, economics, astrophysics, creative writing, and go.

2. Learn a language

Duolingo gets a lot of attention, but it's also genuinely effective for building foundational vocabulary. For more serious learning, pair it with Anki flashcards and YouTube immersion content. Summer is the perfect low-pressure time to start.

3. Watch a live wildlife cam

This sounds too niche to mention. It is not. There are live webcams trained on eagle nests, coral reefs, African watering holes, and the International Space Station. Explore.org is a good starting point. You will lose track of time in the best way.

4. Play a cooperative online game

Not all gaming is a teenage rabbit hole. Cooperative games like Stardew Valley, It Takes Two, or Sea of Thieves are genuinely fun to play with a partner or friends, and they're social in a way that scrolling is not.

5. Take a virtual museum tour

The British Museum, the Louvre, the Smithsonian, and the Vatican all offer online tours with real depth. Google Arts & Culture has aggregated thousands of institutions. It's not the same as being there, but it's better than most alternatives.

Make The Internet your summer Internet

Most of the above requires a decent Internet connection, but not an extraordinary one. The exception: anything that involves streaming high-quality video benefits noticeably from a faster, more consistent connection. If multiple people in your household are doing this simultaneously, the math adds up quickly.