TPM (Total Pinterest Move)
Yes, that’s right: “Pinterest” has become an adjective. Don’t tell me that you haven’t looked at a handmade tote bag, floating candle centerpieces or low-fat double chocolate chip cranberry gooey cookie bars without thinking, “That’s SO Pinterest!” If you haven’t, it’s probably because you haven’t been on the Internet for over a year. So let me catch you up on the latest phenomenon taking over the computer, vocabulary and free time of women everywhere.
Pinterest.com launched in March 2010 and quickly swept across the web, becoming one of Time Magazine’s “50 Best Websites of 2011.” The concept is simple: find images online and organize them into your own collections, or “Pin Boards”. Clicking on the picture in your Pin Board will take you to the website where you got the image. You can also browse others’ pins and repin them to your own boards. The pins of people who you “follow” show up on your homepage, or you can browse all of Pinterest by its different categories. You can discover everything from healthy recipes to inspiring quotes, cool kitchen cabinets to funny pictures of baby platypuses.
Fair warning: once you start pinning, you won’t stop. There’s something relaxing about mindlessly scrolling through images and saving the ones that make you happy. There’s a positive, creative vibe about the website, and every image inspires you to do more and be more. We see tutorials of DIY jewelry and think, “I want to do that!” or recipes for healthy banana nut bread and decide that we want to try to bake. If you’re having an off day, just search “inspiring” on Pinterest and your screen will be flooded with great quotes and images that make you smile.
Pinterest also has a social aspect to it. You can “follow” your friends and they can “follow” you, kind of like Twitter, but you can’t accept or deny a “follow.” Whenever someone repins, likes, follows or comments on one of your pins, you get an email. And don’t deny that little bit of pride you get when you receive an email notifying you that thirty people have repined your pin. Businesses, large and small, have use Pinterest to spread their products and ideas to a wider customer base.
For me – and every other girl I’ve talked to – Pinterest is cathartic. Somehow, it makes you feel creative and productive while sitting in front of your computer, endlessly scrolling through screen after screen of recipes, landscapes, bathrooms, and animals. All those recipes you’ve wanted to try, ideas for your future home, and styles you love are all in one place, just waiting to be made into reality.
This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Rhodes chapter.