In today’s day and age, it is an understatement to say that we have a wealth of information at our fingertips. Need something to eat within walking distance? Urbanspoon or Yelp! can help. Trying to buy a car? Cars.com provides specs, reviews, tips, and personalized comparative analysis for most automotive models… ever. Reading The Great Gatsby? Here are the SparkNotes. Need to know about something about small-scale American chicken breeders? One google search and voila, you’ve got yourself a directory of hatcheries by U.S. state. For pretty much any question a person could fathom, there is an online answer and his or her disposal– Pie easy.
“Anne of Denmark (12 December 1574 – 2 March 1619) was queen consort of Scotland,England, and Ireland as the wife of King James VI and I.[1]”
- To reaffirm the fact that we Wikipedia Adventurers are not alone.
- To give a commonplace activity an official title. Next time you waste three hours surfing Wikipedia, you can justify it by saying that you went on a Wikipedia Adventure of epic proportions. Sort of.
- To champion the idea of self-education. The thing I love about Wikipedia Adventures is that even though you’re probably wasting time and diverting your attention from things that you really should be doing, at least you’re learning something. Sure, Wikipedia is not the end-all be-all of information sources, but, in terms of intellectually furthering yourself, going on a three hour Wikipedia adventure beats the shit out of watching three back to back episodes of VH1’s Rock of Love.
- Start your adventure on the Wikipedia’s main page. Here you’ll find excellent fodder for your journey updated daily. This includes a featured article, a current news feed, a picture of the day, a “Did You Know?” section, and a review of “on this day in history”
- After you’ve completed your adventure, use your newly acquired Wikipedia knowledge in conversation. This will increase the chance that you retain this information in the long-term. After all, you never know when you’ll need to whip out your understanding of serial killer psychology, or the fact that France’s Capetian dynasty ruled the country for over 800 years.
- Give yourself a time limit, and stick to it. As much as I love this activity, it’s not something we can reasonably afford to do every day for hours at a time. An egg timer can help here.
- Finally, I cannot, in good conscience, write this without talking about the Wikipedia game. Here’s how you play: 1. Find a friend who’s either really bored, or has the patience to humor you. 2. Pick two topics that are completely unrelated, for example wind farms and Fight Club, the novel. 3. Using only Wikipedia links, connect the two. The winner can be judged either by time (personal best: Bill Clinton to cheese in 28.3 seconds), or by number of clicks (personal best: osteoarthritis to My Little Pony in 4 links).