Pinterest is a bit of an enigma. It’s a social media platform, but it doesn’t feel like Instagram or Facebook. It’s a bit like a visually-powered Tumblr or a supercharged VSCO, with rows of pictures filling the screen, but it isn’t quite like a personal blog or photofeed either. The truth is, there’s no right or wrong way to use Pinterest. Although it’s meant to be used to create and share virtual bulletin boards, I see it as a way to browse and collect almost anything you want. Personally, I use Pinterest to cultivate my aesthetic and to virtually window shop. I curate my boards to reflect my taste in interior decor, beauty products, and fashion, among other things. I collect #hairspo to show my hair stylist at my next appointment and save pictures of cafés that I want to visit the next time I’m in NYC. As someone with so many different lifestyle ideas and shopping wishlists, Pinterest is the perfect place to organize my tastes in an aesthetically pleasing way.
Your Feed: Personalized
Pinterest will take the time to get to know you. Much like the TikTok For You Page, Pinterest’s algorithm will analyze your likes, saved pins, following, and searches to present you with a personalized home feed each time you launch the app or website. Maybe you’re a Lana Del Rey stan with a penchant for vintage luxury clothing. Your feed may show you cherry lip balms, heart-shaped sunglasses, and tweed Chanel sets. Maybe you’re a vegan who also dreams of traveling to France. Your feed may show you plant-based recipes and photos of the Eiffel Tower. Maybe you just like looking at cute puppy photos, which will prompt Pinterest to show you bundles of golden retriever pups and fluffy poodles. Whoever you are, Pinterest will try its best to show you things that you find beautiful or inspiring!
Build-An-Aesthetic
I like to treat my Pinterest boards like online collages. I choose photos that have similar colors, lighting, and styles to create a visually-coherent art piece. It makes me happy to see a spread of photos that match my personal tastes! Pinterest has no shortage of stylized images that fit any aesthetic you can think of. Whether you’re into the look of Emma Chamberlain’s brightly-colored casual Instagram feed, the softly-blurred gardens of the cottagecore aesthetic, the poolside LA influencer style, all three, or none of these, Pinterest has the images for you. Even if you have no idea what styles you like, you can begin collecting images that stand out to you and eventually have a full board of pins to showcase your own aesthetic.
Add to (virtual) cart
As someone who loves online browsing just as much as online shopping, Pinterest satisfies those daydreamy needs to add items to my online shopping cart. From my Pinterest home page, I can browse outfits, lip tints, and perfumes that match my style. I can add neutral-toned sweaters and floral tops to my “clothes” board, floral and fruit-scented fragrances to my “beauty” board, and off-white bedding sets to add to my “decor” board. I can view people’s outfits and check the comments under the pin to see where the articles of clothing are from. If I’m looking for inspiration for a friend’s birthday gift, I can use the search engine to specify what sort of gift they would like. It’s a lot of fun to put together a collection of your dream outfits, bedrooms, and hairstyles without having to actually spend any money. It’s also a great way to collect inspiration for when you do decide to actually buy something.
Pinterest is like a visual diary to collect things that spark joy for you. It’s a way to find inspiration for yourself and it’s a low-commitment creative outlet that doesn’t break the bank. Want to see what I’m up to on Pinterest? Follow me @veraagold.
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