Are You Pinning

It seems as if every time I turn around I am being asked if I am a part of another social media site. At first, it was MySpace, which I am not even sure really exists today, even though I get emails from it now and then. Then there came Facebook and Twitter and they were followed by LinkedIn, the business market social media site where you can post resumes, links, and make business connections. It is supposed to be more professional, but I haven’t ventured into the deep end, yet. To be honest Twitter and Facebook still confuse me somewhat, but at least I can spy on my children that way and keep up with what is happening in their lives.

Of course, those weren’t enough. Next I was asked about Pinterest, which I will admit to calling Pin-Interest for awhile, and then I was told that I really needed to be on Goodreads. It was the site where readers can connect with writers and review books and be nosey about what everyone else is reading or wants to read. I know as much about Goodreads as I do about LinkedIn, which means I have an account but that is about it. However, I hopped onto Pinterest full speed and can get lost in the pages of fantastic pictures that abound.

Now, I am not nor do I ever plan on being an expert on any of these social media sites, so please never take anything I say as Gospel. Actually, don’t take anything I say as Gospel about anything, because I don’t want to be responsible if you screw something up. There are enough people out there who claim they are social media gods and can help you navigate the murky waters of ever changing policies and procedures. I have too much writing to do to keep up with any of it, although I am told I need it all for my platform building. I’ll even go so far as to be up front and tell you that I know I am using Pinterest wrong, but that I really don’t care. I am having fun with it and to me that is all that matters.

Now that those disclaimers are out of the way, allow me to tell you what I think. I think Pinterest was started so that ladies could share recipes, craft ideas, and suggestions for outfits that would make their significant other’s eyes pop out. There are boards, much like the bulletin boards you see in schools, Laundromats, and craft stores, and you can create a board for each different topic such as crafts for the kids, pet odor remedies, and what not to fix for dinner. If all of that sounds sexist, well as I said, that is what I was led to believe the site was for.

You also accomplish this by pinning pictures, not links, to the various boards; with a description of what you are pinning that others may read. Then, the pictures are shared on a main board of people you are following for you to peek and repin to your own board for later viewing. Furthermore, you can type in a topic, such as you would do a web search, and all the pins that have those words in the description will appear and wallah! you have more to browse and snag.

However, my intention when joining was merely as a means of sharing my blog and other writings as well as the writings of others with a different audience. Once I arrived, though, I discovered so many other fascinating areas that I almost forgot to pin (the act of posting to this site) my writings. I soon began creating boards of various topics, such as The Finer Life, Fantasy Art, and Beautiful Animals. I would browse and discover pictures that I enjoyed and soon had them on my own boards so that I could return and look at them again. From there, I branched out even more with Dishes I for the Girls to Try, recipes I had come across that might be fun to make, For Your Drinking Pleasure, which has cocktail recipes, and even holiday boards with decorating and recipe ideas. I even created a board, which I call A Little Bit Naughty, for those enticing pictures that vibrant males enjoy.

It was pinning to that last board when I realized that all of my sites were connected. I pinned a picture of a lady in almost nothing and someone on Facebook LIKED it and I was confused. It was also retweeted on Twitter. At this point, I wondered why we want everyone to join us on all of our sites if we can see everything everyone does anyway from each of the social media connections. If what I do on Pinterest is seen on Facebook and Twitter, why would people want to follow me on Pinterest? We have begun to overlap in too many areas and once again I began to grow leery of technology and Big Brother.

On the pinned pictures there are links for you to follow to the original site where you can do further research or bookmark for later use. I’m not sure why you would want to bookmark the site if you had it pinned, however. Seems to be a step in redundancy, but what do I know. I’m pinning swimsuit models on Pinterest that my mom can see on Facebook. For the record, if you follow me on this picture pinning site, I don’t pin things according to the web sites. To be honest, I don’t care about the websites. I enjoy the pictures and that’s why I put them on my boards. I want to be able to go back and browse through them as if I was looking through a photo album. If I wanted to look at the websites, I would be on StumbleUpon. I am on StumbleUpon, by the way. Feel free to look me up and we can invade each other’s web browsing histories.

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