It has come to my attention recently that people are sad. I know that this is an earth-shattering conclusion, and I am very smart for realizing it, but I would also assert that part of the reason people are sad is that we are constantly treated to a feed on social media showing the lives of everyone around us.
You open Snapfacetiktoktagram every day and see that everyone appears to be having a better time than you. You find that you cannot help but compare yourself to them. What if I told you there was a social media app where you could consume content in peace without having to worry about anyone else’s life? An app where you could totally isolate yourself with memes and maybe a few close friends?
That’s right — I speak of Pinterest!
Now, if you are under the impression that Pinterest is not an app designed for you, because you don’t think of yourself as particularly creative or artistic, that is understandable. Pinterest’s help center page defines it as a “visual discovery engine for finding ideas like recipes, home and style inspiration, and more.” Lots of people are not interested in home inspiration or recipes, at least not to the extent that Hobby Lobby décor would take up their entire feed. I feel the same way.
The shift in perspective I would introduce is that Pinterest is an image database with full access to the internet, where you can sort images into easily accessible places without downloading them. Lifewire defines it as “a social site where you can collect and share images of anything you find interesting.” Anything!
Not only can you use Pinterest as a way to collect inspiration about anything from art tutorials to food in an easily accessible place, but you can also find memes of any category and sort them together. Short videos end up on there too. They arrive on Pinterest a little later than other apps, since it takes time for specific pop culture pictures to filter over from some of the more mainstream apps, but I personally have no problem with that. As the proud owner of approximately 102 Pinterest boards, I can sort my feed into anything from clothing I like to specific twitter screenshots about Star Wars. I am winning.
Maybe you do like the social element of social media. You can have friends on there, too! I have multiple boards that are shared between my friends, and one of my favorite feelings is seeing when one of them adds something to my boards. It is a nice little reminder to me that my friend thought I would like this picture of flowers, or this Shakespeare quote. If you share a picture like that on Facebook, that is a nice feeling too, but everyone else on your timeline looks at it and suddenly your friendship is open to the whole world.
You can use boards for class if you need to collect pictures for a certain project, and they are all there for you if you need to cite your sources from the original links. You can find pictures you would like to draw or drawing tutorials if you need some help. You can find literally anything that is cleared for this website if you just search, and store it safely in one of your boards, which you can choose whether to keep private.
I will admit that there is still the creativity trap of comparing yourself to other peoples’ pictures on the app, but for the most part you will not know them personally so there is a degree of detachment. If your goal is to completely escape from all social media platforms that will make you compare yourself with other people to at least a small degree, throw your phone in a river.
Take some time to fight your own FOMO and get the app that you can enjoy without worrying what the people in your life will think about what you post. Welcome to a fresh new way to waste hours of your time, just without having to look at people from high school.