Many bad things have been happening in the world lately. As a stereotypical college student, it's easy for me to feel overwhelmed by all the negativity and helpless because there's the impression that I don't have the time, influence or money to make a huge difference in the world for good.
However, there are small, every day things that I can incorporate into my life that can actually help people.
Since I spend a huge chunk of my time on the computer, I have found five ways to positively support what I believe in, with little to no cost to myself. It's a win-win situation.
1. Free Rice
If you're the type of person that gets bored easily but loves quizzes and trivia questions, you can head over to Free Rice to test your knowledge. The non-profit website states very clearly in big font,
"For each answer you get right, we donate 10 grains of rice through the World Food Programme to help end hunger"
You also have the option of changing the subjects you get quizzed on which includes math, chemistry, science, different areas of the humanities, the English language and — for all you high-schoolers out there — SAT prep.
2. Tab for a Cause
I tend to be an absent-minded web surfer, and many a times I have found myself mindlessly clicking open a new tab only to immediately close it because I realized I never needed it in the first place.
Tab for a Cause kind of enables my bad habit, but like its name says it's for good reason and it's one of my favorite things to use.
To put it simply, this browser extension will take you to an ad-filled page every time you open a new tab. A percentage of the ad revenue earned from those ads are converted into "hearts" that you collect, which you can then donate to one of eight charities that the developers have partnered with.
You can donate your hearts at any time and you don't have to commit to donating to just one charity too.
3. Goodblock
Created by the same people who made Tab for a Cause, Goodblock is essentially "Ad Blocker for a Cause." It works similar to the well-known Adblock Plus where it blocks all ads on sites you visit which you can toggle on or off for specific sites.
What makes Goodblock good though is that once a day, a butterfly named Tad will show up on the corner of your screen to take you to a curated ad. When you click to look at the ad, you earn "hearts" just like in Tab for a Cause that you can donate to charity.
4. Turn off your ad blocker for your favorite sites
Now you might be thinking, "Wait, you literally just told me about a great ad blocker that I can use for charity, but now you're telling me to turn it off?"
Well, kind of. Let me explain.
As seen with Tab for a Cause and Goodblock, ad revenue is a big thing, not just for them but for all websites.
If you frequent websites that make great content but don't have much money to pay their staff in the first place — such as one of my favorite pop culture websites The Mary Sue — turning on an ad blocker on them decreases the support they receive.
This doesn't mean you shouldn't use an ad blocker, but you should definitely invest some time into picking and choosing which sites are worth the ads.
5. AmazonSmile
Shortly after I started college, I hopped on the Amazon Prime bandwagon because I couldn't pass up Prime Student where Amazon offered a 6-month free trial of Prime followed by a discounted membership for as long as you were a student.
AmazonSmile sweetens the deal for me because every time you purchase an AmazonSmile-eligible item, Amazon will donate a percentage of the money to the charity of your choice.
While it certainly doesn't replace actually donating money to a charity, it still helps.
I can personally say that I use all of five these ways to try to do just a little good, but there are definitely many more.
Would you use any of these?
