Several of you reading this are probably thinking how ridiculous I am for deleting my Pinterest account.
Yes, Pinterest at its core is a great concept and awesome for blogging. When I first accepted the invitation to join, I thought it would be a great way to visually keep track of things that I found online.
I had a few different boards. One with things I wanted to make and buy for our new house. I had two boards showcasing food I wanted to cook and eat, one healthy board and one sinfully delicious of course! I even had a board with cool activities I wanted to do with my boys and one with genius cleaning tips.
Sounds pretty harmless, right?
Well these same boards were quickly leading to my emotional demise as they were a representation of things I wanted, slowly eating away at me. I wanted to eat something, I wanted to buy something, I wanted to create something, or I wanted to fix something. As I pinned each new pin, my list of wants grew longer and longer.
My gigantic to-do list left me feeling depressed and overwhelmed. I felt like a bad mom because I hate anything that involves a hot glue gun, scissors, or glitter. I struggled to make decisions about whether I should make low fat, organic, vegan, or low carb foods a part of my meal plan.
It’s easy to fall in love with Pinterest because it delivers the same thrill as shopping. The downside is that Pinterest only gathers concepts and not the tangible result. So instead of having all of these great things, all we are left with is a gigantic to-do list.
It’s not you Pinterest, it’s me.
The last thing I need right now is more stuff to do or more things I need to buy. It’s a cute idea, but you know what? All of those old wood shutters cost money! Before Pinterest I would have never thought that my dishwasher needed cleaned, but now that I know, I guess using kool-aid would work. Hey, at least it’s cheap!
Motherhood is constantly bringing organic challenges to my life. I promise you that I am not missing out on some ground breaking concept that I will never be able to find again by not using Pinterest. Yes, the internet is a vast ocean of information and ideas. But I would rather lose them forever, than to waste more time adding things to my list when I could actually be doing something like playing with my kids or going for a walk.
When I’m finally ready to build a farm house table, I’ll start my project the old fashioned way and Google it. Who knows, maybe there will be a better idea by then!
Is Pinterest a blessing or a burden in your life? Do you want to pack up your boards for good?
About Jamie
God bless you! B/c I am so not interested in Pinterest either! And I agree, it only furthers our society’s “want/need” mentality. Good for you! And I think you rock! <3
You have a superbly valid argument
While I do have quite a few boards, my main usage is for recipes. Sure there are hundreds that I haven’t made (yet :), but probably at least 90% of my meal plan comes from things that I’ve pinned, so in that respect, it’s extremely helpful to me. I’ve also found several ideas that I’ve used to ACTUALLY MAKE some gifts for the boys’ preschool teachers. Since I’m nothing even close to a “fashionista,” my fashion board has maybe 3 things on it, so my list of material wants stemming from Pinterest is fairly small. My food boards get the most traffic (from myself and others), and especially my WW board that a friend and I are both contributors to. It probably has the most repins/likes than any of my others, so I feel like I’m doing a community service when I pin to that one – haha. I wouldn’t say I’m addicted to it — mostly I just pin recipes that I find when I go through email newsletters and such. Otherwise, I go on when I’m bored b/c there’s always something new to look or laugh at. I won’t be packing mine up any time soon, but never say never!!!
I guess I don’t look at Pinterest as a “to do” list. I look at it as more of a “could do” list. In other words, if I’m feeling short on ideas of what to make for dinner, I browse through my Dinner Ideas board and see what inspires me. If I’m at my wits end on what activity to do next to entertain my toddler, I look at my kiddos board and see what ideas I find. If I don’t get around to doing something I’ve pinned–no big deal. I see how it could slip into the “must have/do this” mentality, but I just refuse to put that kind of pressure on myself.
I don’t think of it as a blessing or a burden. Maybe I just don’t take it very seriously? I have been using Pinterest for over a year. I have gotten great ideas, a new blog for people who have tried some of the ridiculous projects on Pinterest (www.yourpinbroke.com), and we’ve gotten a big boost in web traffic by Pinning suitable posts.
I think the key is to not become “addicted” to Pinterest. Just like anything (Facebook, crafting, reading), you need to find a healthy amount in your life. If I thought it was controlling me or causing me to feel badly about myself, I would delete my account, but it’s not.
Good for you for recognizing what it was doing to you! I’ll continue to re-Pin the useful and laugh at the ridiculous
Oh and side note? The made-up word “Pinterestaholic” makes me cringe.
I know exactly what you mean!! I made my fiance crazy, wanting him to look at ideas for future kitchens/livingrooms/bedrooms (we live in a small apartment). Well, that addiction to Pinterest led me instead to Lifehacker. I love Lifehacker better since I’m able to use more realistic ways of decorating, cooking, or remodeling projects. As I reason it, Pinterest shows you ‘that one table’ or ‘couch’ or whatever and there’s only one. That ‘couch” is pretty but really expensive and you’ll probably never afford or own one, and if you do, it won’t match with your house or life and how it reflects you. I’m stingy on the wallet, so I’d rather make it (usually cheaper) than buy it. Pinterest doesn’t allow you to make it.
I enjoyed reding this. I have been hearing about Pinterest for awhile. I wasn’t following it or anything UNTIL someone “pinned” a card I made on my blog…Then I wanted to see what this was. I had to “sign up” and saw my card. I haven’t done anything on it, and all of a sudden I have people “following me” on Pinterest..Nothing to follow, just the one card. I started looking around and it made me nervous , as I felt bombarded with “images”..Some of the same ones are all over the place. I haven’t been back.. I love crafting and will look at a ton of blogs and comment and enjoy them, but this was too much for me. I also am not sure I like that your images can be “pinned” without permission…
I feel the exact same way. Pinterest just makes me hungry, or upset that I’m not on a tropical beach sipping a cocktail. I found myself getting a little bored because all Pinterest was doing was making me wish I was somewhere else/doing something else, when really I’m quite content with what’s around me. I haven’t yet deleted my account, but I haven’t logged in for weeks.
Thanks for all the feedback! I deleted my account a week ago and have been so much more productive. We took a family trip to IKEA and got a few things and are actually doing projects in our home rather than me just sitting around thinking up more stuff to do.
Ha ha, I can totally see your point. I have to say I got hugely excited about Pinterest and now don’t use it nearly so much, like a lot of other digital stuff, it can easily eat up all your time. I still love the idea though and do make use of it or the newer one called Bo.lt when I want to do visual stuff for my business planning.