This post, as you may not have guessed from the title, is about Pinterest. I have been intrigued by the idea of Pinterest, so I investigated. My investigation left me slightly frustrated when I signed up for a membership invite, or something.
Weeks later, after no notification that I had been selected for membership in that exclusive club, I was ready to give it all up. Then something else (can't remember what) piqued my curiosity again. I asked my friend janeheiress for an invite, and she came through in a major way.
I signed up, but hated that it had to connect to either Facebook or Twitter. I quickly removed my link to Facebook, because the thought made me a little ill and started exploring. I learned that I regretted signing up for Pinterest. I had a mild loathing for it and how it works.
I hated that to pin something requires several steps, including my own comment. My most common comment: " ". (That's a single space.)
Soon I decided that I must pin things that I didn't see much of on the main page when I logged in. Soon I was manically pinning xkcd comics and animals from the cheezburger network.
Over the next week, what followed was-to me-a surprising amount of attention from people I didn't know. Every woman who loves animals (actually like 10 women) was repinning my cute animal pictures and several others repinned my comics. Some people I don't know started following me, and several started following one of my 3 main pinboards. I felt popular. Also, strangely proud of my work. Is this mild explosion of repinning what everyone experiences?
I am confused and intrigued by the phenomenon that is pinterest. I would tell you to find me, but I'm not sure how.
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Hahaha! Pinterest is pretty perplexing. My friend Amelia is doing a "visual rhetoric" project on it. My being flattered at people following me is tempered by discomfort that they are total strangers, though. Why all of my boards? They're really not that great. But the bottom line is, I used to cut magazine pictures of cool buildings and pretty things out and paste them in a scrapbook when I was a kid. Pinterest is essentially a digital version of the same thing.
ReplyDeleteOne other thing needs to be mentioned. I would be pinning xkcd comics regularly if not for the fact that the mouseovers aren't included! Bummer. Those are usually the best part.
ReplyDeleteThe mouseovers are the best, I agree. This leads me to another thing that bugs me about this site: I am perplexed by how many clicks it takes me to get from noticing a pin on Pinterest to the site of origin for that pin.
ReplyDeleteThe search functionality of pinterest is totally lame. There is no good way to find things on there. I guess you just have to follow people or see what is most popular?
ReplyDeleteAs someone who hates most things, I actually like Pinterest. Go figure. The only complaint I have about it is that there is no good iPad app. My most "repinned" item - a picture of a bassoon.
ReplyDelete