By Maureen Rigney, LICSW
Director, Support Initiatives
GO2 for Lung Cancer

The coronavirus and the resulting covid-19 disease have changed everyone’s daily lives. In this blog, Maureen Rigney, our lead social worker and boredom fighter, shares her thoughts on using idle time while at home social distancing.

Need a break from binge-watching shows? Would you like to use your social distancing time to learn something new or help others? Here are a few, unique opportunities you can participate in from the safety and comfort of your own home!

  • Learn a new language with Duolingo! This free (if you can tolerate ads) online resource is both fun and easy to use. Duolingo believes EVERYONE can learn another language and offer native English speakers 35 languages to try. The offerings include languages you would expect, but there are surprises such as Welsh, Latin, and Klingon!
  • Learn all kinds of new things online with Coursera. There is something for nearly everyone at Coursera, which allows you to learn from top institutes of learning from all over the world. You can take free courses for fun or pay for certifications and degree credits. Take a humanities class like Modern Art and Ideas from the Metropolitan Museum of Art or business and personal development classes from Yale University, including Understand the Markets and The Science of Well-Being. With hundreds of courses, there is one just right for you.
  • Volunteer with a twist with the National Archives as a Citizen Archivist or the Smithsonian as a Digital Volunteer. It’s easy to sign up and you can provide an incredible service by making historical and archival documents more accessible and searchable through tagging, transcribing and adding comments. As the Archives says, “Every contribution you make helps unlock history.”
  • Finally, read the classics (or anything else you fancy) by using apps like Overdrive and Libby that allow you to use your library card to check out ebooks and audiobooks on your phone and other devices.

Try one of the ideas above, and continue to play board games, do jigsaw puzzles, connect on social media (if helpful), and chat with friends and family.

Stay safe and we will get through these interesting times together.