According to what I keep overhearing, apparently the new internet phenomenon is Stumbleupon.com. Proof that people don’t really know what to do with their spare time, there is now a website that can direct you to random websites based on your interests. A sort of E-harmony for your soul, Stumble will introduce you to some cool and bizarre stuff, all at the click of a button.
I first signed up for a Stumble account and was then directed to check off some of my interests based on the most popular things others choose. From there, I could get more specific with categories like Hobbies and Interests, Music, Crafts, etc.
After checking off some random things that I like such as music, philosophy, art and self-improvement, I hit stumble. I was brought to a website with a header titled “Sidewalk Chalk Guy”. Stumble Upon kind of works as a search engine, where it does not completely direct you away from the site but rather creates a toolbar on top of your websites that allow you to stumble again at any time. On Chalk Guy’s website, I saw some of the most amazing art I’ve ever seen- in SIDEWALK CHALK. This artist recreated works of art that appear to be three-dimensional. I’m excited to see what I will plunge into next.
I click stumble, and am brought to a page of an SUV driving into a tornado. The quality is amazing, and then I realize that I did click “Weather” as one of my interests, as well as “Photography”. Really only Stumble knows why it brought me to that picture which I think is really cool. I enjoy random things and Stumble Upon caters to my absurd personal interests.
The next website was weird, but that was what I was asking for when I checked off one of my interests as things that are “Bizarre”. At first I thought it was people doing random poses in the street up against buildings, but it was actually art. Someone made scarecrow-like “people” that looked very realistic and were positioned in weird places on the city street. Some were legs sticking out of trash bags, others were people placed in fountains. This artist was probably going for shock factor, as I’m sure many people were confused by the art or even mistook them for real people.
On Stumble, you can choose to save a site under “Favorites” where you can retrieve them later. I hit stumble again and was sucked into watching a two minute and 43 second clip of a super spray painter. This guy literally busted out a galactic image of outerspace with spraypaint in two minutes. It was really cool, but I don’t know how I would have found that otherwise or even thought to search for that.
Stumbleupon.com could be the greatest or worst addition to your daily routine. You could honestly find yourself stuck on it for hours. Hopefully though, you’ll just use it as a way to stumble onto some cool things in your life.