In some form or fashion almost everyone has come to the realization that social media outlets, the two most popular being Facebook and Twitter, are not good for us. They have created unrealistic expectations for our lives. In fact, most of the scholarly articles out there argue that they do way more harm than good for an individual’s psyche. Although I do agree that these things are true, I believe that Pinterest is actually the biggest problem of them all. Especially for women.
Pinterest is a mash-up of a social media site, a search engine aimed toward blogs, and an organization tool for your favorite ideas. It uses large pictures as the main attraction, with a few words underneath each “pin”. It comes in handy when you need an idea, or if you just enjoy browsing the web. So there are, of course, perks to having a Pinterest account.
I honestly wasn’t on the Pinterest bandwagon when it first came on the scene, but I was told I needed to get on board because it would help spread the word for my articles and my blog (it has helped a good bit). But after I made the account I did more than pin my articles. I started looking at gorgeous food, stunning places to travel, and puppies. I didn’t really think it was affecting me at first but I soon realized that the lists upon lists of self-help were not helping me become a better person; they were making me increasingly unsatisfied with my own life. This is my simplistic metaphor for Pinterest’s role in a woman’s life.
Pinterest is like the woman’s version of pornography. If a man watches pornography to receive tips on how to better satisfy his partner then it can improve his sex life. In fact, many sex therapists actually tell their clients to watch it to stimulate creativity in the bed. However, when a man watches pornography, believing that everything he sees can actually occur in the exact fashion, then his expectations for his partner can be too high, and he becomes disappointed in his sexual relationship.
Does this sound familiar, ladies? It’s our relationship with Pinterest! Pinterest is nice for the occasional help, but over indulging on it is giving us extremely high expectations for our lives! Pinterest does not allow for self-invention, or just being happy with what we have. It even gives us extra anxiety about what our expectations in life should be.
Here’s how:
Pinterest Can Make Us Over-Think. On Pinterest, there are informative articles, there are quotes that inspire us to live beautifully simple lives, and, of course, there are DIY decorations and food for every event imaginable. The pins are intended to improve your life in some way, but the irony is they make it more complicated. It makes us crave more independence than necessary for every situation. Now, just a cake isn’t enough. It has to be semi-homemade with sprinkles. A craft session cannot be a messy fun time for children; it has to be the production of a “Pinterest-worthy” pillow. Since Pinterest’s main content is from bloggers, the pins make everything seem overly easy. That is a bloggers job, to make a task seem doable for everyone. This leads to stressing for the best birthday party ever with all the best DIY projects, instead of just having fun and laughing (Isn’t that the whole point of a party?).
Emotions can be lost after self-indulging on Pinterest. After looking at the recipes on Pinterest food in real life can be disappointing. Yes, I am sure you have heard that about photo-shopped advertising as well; however, Pinterest is different. It is not a company attempting to sell you a product, so it seems like the pictures are from honest people. You have put trust in the blogger. It’s as if your best friend tells you the recipe. You believe that those brownies will taste exactly as amazing as they look on the page. However, the next time you attempt to make brownies since you have a craving from looking at Pinterest, the emotion that occurs when you eat one will already be gone. It was wasted on the feast you had in your mind. Now the brownie you are eating is not quite that satisfying, thanks to Pinterest.
Compare Pinterest Wedding to Real Life Wedding Here.
Another example of losing our emotions on Pinterest is wedding planning. A day that is supposed to be intimate for a man and woman is now all over the internet for young women to gawk over, which leads us to a term called “emotional chastity.” It’s a term coined by the Catholic Exchange, however, religious or not, it comes into play for our relationship with Pinterest.
“Emotional ‘chastity’, like physical chastity, also requires a discipline of mind. Just as we can sexually fantasize about a person in our mind we can emotionally fantasize about a person as well. The best way to describe this is ‘mental stalking.’ It’s that game we can play where we think and daydream about a person almost incessantly. We picture what it would be like to date them, check out our names together as a couple and even mentally plan our wedding. It seems harmless, but when we do this we turn a person into an object by using them for the emotional high we get from the imaginary relationship we have with them.”
Pinterest is like a gateway for women to lose their emotional chastity. It allows us to fantasize about what our wedding should be like. I know using a few ideas is harmless but when we look at the photography of other couples our emotions become involved. We believe our photos should look as beautiful and that we should feel as beautiful as the couple in the image, again leading to a false sense of reality and giving us extremely high expectations for the actual wedding. When the wedding day comes, it is less about you and your partner’s individuality as a couple, but about whether or not you fit into the mold you made yourself according to Pinterest.
Pinterest encourages the cycle of women “doing too much.” Living in the 21st century, women are trying to figure out what it means to actually be a woman. Currently, we are in a state where we believe that we have to do everything, and it’s not healthy. With that being said, Pinterest is like a search engine for perfection. In fact, some women are saying that they feel less of a woman because Pinterest has set unrealistic standards for a working woman. We feel that other women are doing everything, and we want to compete.
We are losing the meaning in our own lives because of our “pinspirations”. Ladies, we will never find “happy” on Pinterest, that’s up to you!
Do you think Pinterest has an effect on your life? Leave a comment below!
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