unHooked

Does Pinterest really … work?  To answer that, I’d need to know the intended function of Pinterest.

Googling “Pinterest” tells me that it’s a “web and mobile application company that operates a software system designed to discover information on the World Wide Web, mainly using images and on a shorter scale, GIFs and videos.”  At least, that’s what Wikipedia told Google to tell me.

Wikipedia goes on to quote Pinterest CEO, Ben Silbermann, as saying that Pinterest is a “‘catalogue of ideas’ that inspires users to ‘go out and do that thing’, rather than as an image-based social network.[6]” (I’ll leave that bracketed 6 in there — I’ve not yet mastered how to quote a quote within a website within a blog.  My Librarian (yes, I have my own personal one, everyone should) will surely send me a link or YouTube video for future reference.) (PS: you know you’re on the right track when you’re making fun of yourself for your ignorance of Social Media and your spellchecker doesn’t bat an eyelash at “YouTube” being a misspelled word. iGuess I’m just old.)

I digress.  I like what Mr. Silbermann says about inspiring people to go out and do something. Presumably, he means something other than sitting on your couch and pinning pretty pictures into groups.  Let’s use that as Pinterest’s Rubric of Success so that I can give you my opinion as to whether or not it works.  I contemplated including a definition of “rubric”but instead offer my own off the cuff one: a mechanism designed to both (a) define what constitutes the mastery of a concept or skill and (b) to measure the level of achievement thereof.

Pinterest Element: A Catalogue of Ideas

This Pinterest element has at least two components: organization and scope. Both receive an A (that is, “Advanced” for those of you born after 1997, or “All that and a ham sandwich and a bag of chips!” for more advanced-age readers). Think about it: you can make up any type of group into any configuration imaginable, change the level of organization subtly (Cool Tattoos vs Cool Tattoos I Might Actually Consider) or massively (Kitchen Fixes Under $20 vs Kitchens That’ll Cost You $20 to Even See), and it only has to make sense to you. No one else cares. They’re all too busy building their own hierarchy of possibilities.  As for its scope, “www” pretty much has that covered.

Pinterest Element: Inspiration

Or motivation?  Note to self:  take course on discerning information gleaned from Google searches. Why? Because Googling “inspiration vs motivation” led me to a website entitled Paid to Exist that I found difficult to place in a category.  One option was People Are SO Fucking Stupid; another, Sign Me Up! General consensus: inspiration is based on internal factors whereas motivation hinges on eternal influences.

My Pinterest catalog has many boards. Some of my boards are what I describe as hopeful.  To use Pinterest Prose, inspirational, I guess would be a suitable description. Some of them are more just Fantasy Shopping Carts. And some are more practical.  That is, they allow easy access to information (think global recipes box, universal paint color bank, or local senior care providers). With just a few clicks or swipes, all of what one might find helpful or informational is there waiting to be … done?  Having  access to my very own Dewey Decimal System of information doesn’t really inspire me to go out and do something.  Granted, it might be helpful when I do go out to do something. It may also be fair to note that something like 91.875% of Pinterest users have far more sophisticated catalogs than I do, so who knows? Maybe having that access does in fact inspire action.  In others.

My evaluation: E — for “Emerging” on the Millennial Scale (a less than stellar mark) or for the rest of us “Eh…” (as in:  eh, that $75 dollar steak wasn’t really all that good).

At last count, I had 18 Pinterest boards.  Many of them bleed into each other a little bit. Sometimes, for example, I can’t decide onto which board an image should be pinned.  More than one, maybe even more than two would work.  And only one of my boards has subcategories.  It’s a collection of exercises divided into body parts, none of which I have yet to perform.  The only board that has actually “inspired me to go out and do that thing” as per Pinterest’s CEO’s intention, was the one I used to gather ideas for a graduation party.  That was almost three years ago.  I’m going to go out and make a new board when I’m done here.  It’s going to be called Really Witty Blogs that Everyone Should Follow.  What the hell.  Let’s all go out and be paid to exist.