I tend to procrastinate a lot. Like, a lot. On homework, on doing the dishes, on cleaning my room, on doing laundry, on writing this column. Over the years, I’ve fine-tuned my procrastination methods so that I nearly never get anything done when I should.
So I sat down earlier this week (oh, who am I kidding? It was 12 hours before my deadline) and tried desperately to come up with something to write about in this column. I stared across my bedroom for about five minutes, my brain not doing any actual thinking at all, until I gave up on the endeavor and decided to peruse Pinterest for a few minutes (read: hours).
Oh, Pinterest. Have you heard of it?
For those (few) who haven’t, it’s a fairly new@@http://www.beyond-snapshots.com/blog/2011/02/23/we-%E2%99%A5-pinterest/@@ social-media site that allows viewers to “pin” things onto different customizable boards. The things could be links, photos, blogs or pretty much anything else you can find online.
My best friend introduced me to Pinterest about five months ago, but I resisted signing up for the site (actually, you have to “request an invitation” for whatever reason) until winter break because I knew what a huge time-suck it would become.
I eventually gave in, but I’m a little too overwhelmed with the sheer size of the site to check out all of it. I made five boards to start with: “Places to go” (that one’s filling up fast), “Places I’ve been” (because I’m a snob and want to show off), “Foody food food” (this one has more pins than any other), “Yes, please” (my entertainment board; I was running out of pithy titles) and “If I were crafty.” (This last one is empty because I am really, really not crafty. I once accidentally squirted some hot glue onto my finger and immediately put it into my mouth. I am an idiot).
I’ve become a little addicted to the site, more as a time-waster than anything else. It’s fun to look at pretty clothes and yummy food and beautiful homes every once in a while, but after a few months on the site it’s kind of starting to get on my nerves.
Here’s my main problem with Pinterest: It turns otherwise mature, goal-oriented women into little girls.
First, there are the wedding boards. Good lord, the wedding boards. Ladies are posting dozens and dozens of dresses, flower arrangements, engagement rings and locations. It freaks me out! I love weddings as much as the next girl, but I prefer to keep my “future wedding” stash hidden under my bed, rather than online for everyone to see. I don’t need everyone stealing my brilliant ideas.
There’s the “fitness” board. Sometimes I hop on here for a few minutes to work up the motivation to go to body sculpting class, and for the most part the pins are pretty good. There are, however, a disturbing number of girls (and even guys) who pin photos of obviously anorexic models and label them “thinspiration.” And what’s worse, instead of offering words of encouragement to these pinners, commenters just attack them for posting the photos. Yes, the photos are scary and don’t belong on a “fitness” board, but anger isn’t the way to get them taken off.
Then there are the craft boards. And the food boards. And the baby boards. If you were to look at the collective Pinterests of every girl who went to the University, it would look like we were back in the 1950s. Is this really all we care about? Finding the perfect guy who will give us the perfect ring so we can have the perfect wedding and move into the perfect house to have perfect children to whom we can feed perfect meals? It makes us seem like we’re a whole generation of Martha Stewarts.
Now, this isn’t to say that I’m totally against all that. If that’s what you’re looking forward to doing, by all means, please go for it. But most of the girls I know have other things on their minds too. I hope that, as the site develops a little more, we’ll see more boards that reflect the real interests of women, not just the domestic ones.@@or just go to Tumblr.@@
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go make myself a sports board.
Brown: Pinterest needs to join the 21st century
Daily Emerald
February 29, 2012
More to Discover