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Pinterest

Pinterest - The Anti-Social MediaMy friends have been dogging me to join Pinterest. Apparently, a social network isn’t legit until I come and crush its dreams.

Ugh. Fine.

Let’s ruin another hotshot, flash-in-the-pan social network.

So, what the hell is Pinterest?

This is how the geniuses over at Pinterest describe themselves:

Pinterest lets you organize and share all the beautiful things you find on the web. People use pinboards to plan their weddings, decorate their homes, and organize their favorite recipes.

Best of all, you can browse pinboards created by other people. Browsing pinboards is a fun way to discover new things and get inspiration from people who share your interests.

In plain English: Pinterest is yet another website where people can share images with their friends.

How novel!

You find things you like (or hate in my case), and then “pin” them to board. Then your friends see them and they “repin” them to their boards.

Don’t we have this idea already? Isn’t it called Facebook? Or is it Tumblr? Or Reddit? Or Twitter? Or Google+? Maybe the creators of Pinterest forgot they had those sites and that’s why they made their own.

So it’s generic. Fine.

Here’s what I hate most about Pinterest.

Pinterest is all about things. Things to buy. Things to make. Things to use. It’s the epitome of consumer culture. Pinterest asks its users to equate themselves with materials. Is this what we want from a social network? A way to describe ourselves as a sum of discount crap that was made in sweat shop?

Every day, we push more meaningless crap onto the web. We’ve devalued our relationships into meaningless numbers of friends and followers. We’ve stopped being people, and started being personal brands. Are we finally ready to reduce our identity into a collection of photoshopped images of crap we can’t afford?

Pin that to your “Products I love” board.

,

31 Responses to Pinterest

  1. Dan December 28, 2011 at 9:37 am #

    I tired about 4 times to get an “invite” but have never received one.

    I did take a long look at the site the other day and realized it was overrun with “mommy bloggers”. I don’t think i’m the target demographic at Pinterest.

    • Jay December 28, 2011 at 10:50 am #

      It’s funny, everyone active I know on there is a woman. I’m not saying men couldn’t use it in a cool way, the appeal just seems to be with women.

  2. Camilo Olea December 28, 2011 at 10:18 am #

    Yeah, when I saw the “repin” button I was like: “WTF? Tumblr 2?”. I also find the layout very similar to Tumblr’s.

    I already abandoned my Google+ and Diaspora accounts, I’m pretty sure I wont be “pinning” any crap, thank you.

    • Jay December 28, 2011 at 10:51 am #

      But how will I know what you like if you don’t pin things? Your like son Facebook are meaningless without pins!

  3. Phil Buckley December 28, 2011 at 11:33 am #

    You are sooo wrong Jay. Pinterest isn’t about shitty discount Chinese crap - it’s mostly about really well made artistic stuff that most of use will never buy, but wish we could. It’s the same reason people watch “Super Homes” on HGTV.

    The truth is, in most cases would never seek out the awesome stuff we pin in the first place because it would mean shopping someplace other than Target.

    • Jay December 28, 2011 at 12:00 pm #

      So true. I forgot it’s all about handmade crap we don’t have time to hand make because we’re constantly pinning things to Pinterest.

  4. Kathy December 28, 2011 at 12:10 pm #

    Like any social media site, Pinterest is what you make of it. My boards include inspirational people, great books, places I want to visit, recipes I want to cook and books I want to read. Pinterest allows me to organize, share and learn about these and other topics.

  5. InnkeeperVA December 28, 2011 at 3:44 pm #

    I got on it and of course am female and an innkeeper, so the food, the photography, the travel, the inspirational stuff+more interests me.

    And yet, being an avid Facebook hater, I like it because people don’t need to comment every time we say something, they don’t need to share they are dying from a disease, the half dozen dogs they “rescue” with photos and now want you to adopt, or broken hearted and love their wives so dearly.

    So it is social media with less social-bits of interaction, kind of the same reason I like twitter. Information when I want it from whoever I want.

    So far it beats the heck out of google plus…another and another and another we need to be on lest we are losers.

    Pinterest is basically the bookmark on your browser, but a bigger browser. But it definitely is not for guys, not all guys anyway. Maybe they have a craftsman and dewalt cordless section there somewhere…

    • Jay December 29, 2011 at 1:41 pm #

      Anything beats the heck out of Google+. My Geocities guestbook from 1998 beats Google+.

  6. Gini Dietrich December 28, 2011 at 8:04 pm #

    My name is Gini and I’m addicted to Pinterest.

    • Jay December 29, 2011 at 1:40 pm #

      HI Gini. Are you on the twelve step program?

  7. Ashley December 29, 2011 at 5:58 pm #

    May I take a moment to point out that the name “Pinterest” sounds like a disease? :)

    • Jay January 1, 2012 at 8:51 pm #

      Yes you may.

  8. Karen December 29, 2011 at 9:40 pm #

    It must be the people who think in images who love this worthless site. Me, I think in words. I make lists. Also, was it just me, or did Pinterest spam everyone you know once you joined? I now have people I barely know following my (non existent) Pinterest boards.

  9. Karen Rocks December 30, 2011 at 11:15 am #

    I just joined Pinterest and I will tell you why I like it. I am a very visual person and enjoy to keep my crap organized. I don’t participate in the social aspect, I just keep it for mainly ideas for the my house. My husband has a big binder of ideas for our house (we live in an old 100 year old house, so ideas are needed). Me, I like to avoid paper, so this is a handy way to organize my stuff. If I find something on a website I can easily pin it to my board, and also share it online with our architect. That’s my take on it. PS - Love the dream squisher line, as that is my title in our household.

  10. Ryan December 30, 2011 at 9:44 pm #

    So…I just discovered your blog and I think you may be my new hero. I’m a PR student and have been reading the lamest blogs talking about the same old stuff, this is such a relief. ⌘-D

    Thanks,
    Ryan

    • Jay January 1, 2012 at 8:40 pm #

      So, I take it you’ve read Mashable?

  11. Rand December 31, 2011 at 10:09 am #

    From what I can tell, Jay, it’s like going over to someone’s house expecting a party and finding out it’s actually a “show me your scrapbook” event. Much too “white bread” for me.

    • Jay January 1, 2012 at 8:51 pm #

      Is this going to be like having to watch a slide show at Aunt Mary’s?

  12. Gettysburg Gerry December 31, 2011 at 9:18 pm #

    Thats one perspective, me personally, I love it.

    • Jay January 1, 2012 at 8:22 pm #

      That’s one comment. Me personally, I love insight.

    • 12liz September 5, 2012 at 6:58 pm #

      @Gettysburg Gerry

      What ot really is, is a marketer’s dream. Free advertising shared with everyone on the web

  13. ardianzzz January 6, 2012 at 9:40 pm #

    Share images? it’s 4chan!

  14. Becki January 19, 2012 at 2:59 am #

    Yes! Thank you! Nice to see you and some others hate that site/app, too. I get annoyed when they don’t credit the source of their photos that my sister tries to share with me.

  15. Kathy January 20, 2012 at 11:16 am #

    Hater. Pinterest is so fun. I use it mainly for inspiration- doesn’t mean I’m going to buy anything. There’s so many great photos, art and design that are curated by my friends and people with similar tastes as mine that’s easier to find than on Tumblr, Flickr, etc. and Facebook isn’t the right platform for this. The layout is perfect for this and it is so much fun. It skews towards female interests (even searches for cars, tech and sports came back with posts made by women) so that might explain why guys don’t like it as much. Say what you want about materialism, but I see no harm in viewing or posting photos of recipes, flower arrangements and inspirational quotes.

  16. telma January 21, 2012 at 9:34 pm #

    I think your wrong. Pinterest is about gathering of information that you find interesting and useful on the web. And you don’t want to put it on your computer or on bookmarks. In my case its examples of design projects and tutorials. it’s also useful in the sence that if i see an amazing recipe i want to try, instead of writing in a piece of paper or paste the text in a word doc, i can just make a collection of recipes in pinterest. When it cames to clothes i search pinterest and get the most amazing sales because people in pinterest pinned those sites that have sales at that time. Or the other way around. And that actually makes my life better in a way, because i don’t spend much for an item, i know where the bargains are.
    I’m also not pinning for friends. but for people that liked what i pinned. Thats what’s good about it. I don’t have a single facebook friend as a follower in pinterest. And don’t mix the two together. The point of pinterest is not friends, it’s common interests and the same taste in clothing, music, food, art, etc. And put the information you find on the web all in one place, saving you time.
    That’s my opinion any way.

  17. Kathy Rausch February 3, 2012 at 10:51 am #

    Favorite line: “We’ve stopped being people, and started being personal brands.”

  18. Holly February 20, 2012 at 10:29 am #

    THANK YOU!! My thoughts exactly, but you articulate yourself on this far better than I, lol.

  19. Silvia March 21, 2012 at 3:11 pm #

    How about the guys I know that pin pictures of hot girls…is pinterest about posting things you want but will never even have a chance of getting???

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