Do you ever have those moments where you want to look at social media, but you don’t want to doom scroll and see negative content 24/7? Let me introduce you to Pinterest.
I’m one of the girlies who’s been on Pinterest since middle school. I know the ins and outs, I’ve had multiple different accounts, I revamp my personal boards just about every month… I’m a big Pinterest advocate.
I always say to my friends (or anyone I can find who uses it) that I love the simplicity of it. I love to just scroll through cute outfits, homes, animals, etc. It’s everything I could want to see on a social media app without the added stress of every users’ opinion mixed into the algorithm. At the end of the day – it is a social media app. However, the social aspect is much smaller than on apps such as Twitter (or X, I suppose) or Facebook. As far as I know, the only way to talk to other users on the app is to directly message them or comment on one of their pins (which seems to be fairly unpopular).
If you’re unfamiliar with how Pinterest works, I’ll give you a quick and simple run down. When you make an account, you select a few of your interests. This could be literally anything. You could choose dogs, caesar salads, animal paintings, horticulture, or crochet designs. They have just about anything you could think of as an option to choose from. After you pick your few interests, Pinterest will generate a homepage for you where it will show you things related to your interests in some way. When you find something you like, you can pin it to a board. A board is a collection of pins about the same things or within the same theme.
For example, I have multiple boards on my account. I have a clothing board (where I pin inspiration pictures for daily outfits), a school board (to help me find tips with studying and some study inspo), a tattoo board (for all the tattoo inspiration I see on the daily), and a board titled “me”, where I pin memes, quotes, and whatever else I see that I feel represents my personality and me as a person. I’ve seen many people with a variety of different boards, but I like to keep mine on the simpler side of things. As you pin more things and make more boards, your homepage will update and begin to become an amalgamation of your interests.
Since I have been using Pinterest for so long, my homepage is just about perfect. Whenever I feel like I want to get creative, have spent too long watching the news, or just need a brain break; I open the app and fall into a deep hole of all the things that I love.
In a world where we see such devastating things on a daily basis, having a place where you can decompress and let your mind relax is such an important thing. As I said, there are aspects of Pinterest that could be used to communicate with other users, but is typically kept along the lines of “Has anyone tried this recipe?” or “Cool idea!”. This is also a calming aspect of Pinterest. We are so used to social media being a norm within society. We are always talking to each other. Sometimes, we all just need a break! As important as it is to have conversations and make friends, it is equally as important to find comfort and peace in your solitude.
All that to say, if you find yourself needing a place where you can look at all the things you love without the (sometimes unwanted) input from strangers on the internet, Pinterest is a good place to start. There are millions and millions of things to look at on the app, try it out for yourself!