Are These Hacks Worth a Try?

There’s always an easier way to fix mistakes or to complete a task. Everybody has their own way of finding a hack that’s right for them and their situation.

“I find hacks on social media, specifically Instagram,” Zainab Majidi said.

“I mainly find hacks on Snapchat, Youtube, Tik Tok, or my mother’s Facebook,” Nirzana Rasul said.

Hacks can be found practically anywhere and can be useful to almost everyone. It’s up to the viewers to try them out and see if the hacks really work or if it’s just another stunt done for the camera. 

“Occasionally I test the hacks out if I feel like it is something I’ll need in the future, that could come in handy,” Rasul said.

“Yes, all the time. I test hacks for a variety of different things, whether it is cooking, school work, etc. I make sure I have the materials in my house and then I get to testing,” Majidi said.

There are many different hacks that all require different types of materials. I asked Zainab Majidi and Nirzana Rasul to recommend some hacks to try out to see if these hacks really work. The hacks they chose can be helpful when making mistakes in school and at home. 

“One hack would be if you accidentally make a mistake while highlighting, you can utilize a lemon to eliminate the mistake. Another hack I would recommend is, if you don’t have a stain remover, you can easily grab makeup remover and place it over the stain you have encountered on your clothing,” Majidi said. 

Using a lemon to “erase” the highlighter isn’t the best idea. After highlighting a few sentences, I used a q-tip to absorb the lemon juice. I used the q-tip two different ways on the highlighted sentence. The first way was rubbing the lemon juice soaked q-tip, on the sentence. This caused the ink from the paper to bleed wherever I moved the q-tip. The sentence itself became black with the ink. The second way was tapping the lemon juice soaked q-tip, on the sentence. This lightened the highlighter, but it was still visible.

Although I had high hopes for the nail polish remover hack, it didn’t live up to the expectations. I made small marks using a black Sharpie on a bed sheet, and a t-shirt. I used a cotton ball to soak with nail polish remover and wipe the marks away. The mark on the bed sheet didn’t come off, but the color spread in a circle since I was wiping it side to side. The mark on the t-shirt had the same results as the bed sheet. I didn’t see the marker going away or getting lighter.

After gathering my results from the hacks, I asked Majidi if she’d ever use these hacks again, knowing these were the results.

“Okay, so for me, I don’t think I would use the hack again because although it’s a good alternative to fix a mistake while you’re highlighting, it’s definitely not the most efficient. I believe that there are other, more effective and efficient ways to fix a mistake while highlighting,” Majidi said.

“I would recommend the hack that shows how to take permanent markers out of a whiteboard using a dry-erase marker. I’ve also seen this hack where if you write with a permanent marker on your skin, you can get it off quickly by dipping a matchstick in water and rubbing it on the marker,” Rasul said. 

The hack, using a dry-erase marker to take out permanent marker from a whiteboard definitely works. I simply wrote on a whiteboard with a permanent marker and then colored over it with a dry-erase marker. The results were immediate and clean. 

To my surprise, a wet matchstick can take permanent marker off your skin. It’s really simple, you just have to take any matchstick and add some water to the striking part of the match. After that, just start rubbing the wet matchstick on the marker and after a while, the marker will come right off. 

I asked Rasul if she would ever use these hacks again after knowing the results.

“Yes, I would still use these hacks because if you have a younger sibling or cousin or niece or nephew or some relative, and they happen to use the wrong marker on your new board you bought, you can easily use the dry-erase marker to take it off and have it good as new,” Rasul said.

There are many different hacks for the many different situations that we find ourselves in. It’s up to us to find the hacks that’ll help us and make our life easier.