5 Ways Online Education May Improve Your Social Life

Among the perks of attending an online college is the flexible schedule and leftover time to hang out, read, play video games, or even socialize. Socializing is becoming more and more archaic as the Internet seeps into every nook and cranny of our lives; we prefer to online date, text, email, or create Vlogs instead of interacting with others face-to-face. A determined individual, however, may actually use their online education to improve his or her social life. Here’s how:

Time

The most obvious way online education can improve your social life is by giving you the time to do so. With online classes, schedules can be moved around and study time can be anywhere from 4AM to 4PM. It’s your call. Parties can often come to a halt when the designated driver has to leave at midnight due to an early class the next morning, but pursuing an online education will allow you to stay out all night and save your studying for the next afternoon.

Just try not to vomit on your textbooks or computer screen. Time is also a great asset to have on dates, impromptu camping trips, and other adventures. You can’t plan to miss a class, but you can plan your studying around a big upcoming event. It’s a huge drag when all your friends are going out and class stops you from tagging along. Not with an online education.

Break Taking

When attending a class, the urge to break off from paying attention and foray into reddit for some browsing and light learning can really effect your grades. Knowing WTF the teacher is talking about is half the upcoming midterm test — but not with an online education.

You can pause your online class or open a new tab for a quick break, reading about whatever it is that interests you or looking at stupid ‘funny pictures’ websites. You can then use this knowledge to impress other people. World events? Yeah, you know about that. That picture of the old lady who was pepper sprayed? Yeah, you saw that, it was messed up.

Break taking can also involve naps, weed, television, video games, or meditation. Since when can you take a break from a lecture for a bong rip and a quick nap with your cuddly cat? Online education makes this possible.

Dating

Sick of meeting the same stupid sorority girls in class? Online education gives you more time to browse those dating sites, which are full of liars and psychos — way more exciting than the average college girl. After a number of red flags, you may graduate onto Meetup.com or something a little more likely to have saner people involved. Meetup is great for finding events full of people with similar interests.

Billiards events, ping pong meetups, movie nights, poker lovers, and trivia nights abound. Your online education can be put on hold at any time so that you can head out into the real world for some good ol’ meetin’ people time. Not only that, but you’ll probably even have enough time to organize your own event, whether it be for taxidermy or building paper cup pyramids. Odds are, someone is interested.

Jobs

With an online education, you also have more time to go out and find jobs before you graduate. Many students wait until graduation to pursue employment, which is a terrible idea; the degree may be there, but the experience is absent. Your online education allows you the time to seek a temporary job or intern around your area.

This way, you can get started in the industry you’re interested in and have your foot in the door by the time graduation rolls around. If you can’t find a job you’re very enthusiastic about, experience working in any field is always a plus — and sure to give you some extra spending cash. Jobs and internships are also a great way to meet people; even an internship working in the mail room can be good for your social life. Outings with coworkers can be fun, and depending on the industry, meeting people may be part of the occupation.

Hobbies

Your hobbies can also be a great tool for meeting people, another thing online education can give you extra time for. Besides the already mentioned Meetup.com, many hobbies require you to meet people. Taking an extracurricular class such as knitting, dance, or taxidermy forces you to be in a room full of strangers. These strangers will probably want to chat about this hobby during or after the class — invite them out for a drink. Even going to the gym can be a good way to improve your social life (if you like meat heads).

There are plenty of benefits to pursuing an online education, and time to improve your social life is just one of them. They tend to be less expensive than attending schools, which will hopefully give you some extra money to spend when you’re out with all your new found friends.