After several friends from intersecting friend groups pestered me for months, I finally joined Pinterest last week. Granted, it wasn’t to appease them that I succumbed…rather, it was because I’m helping a friend with a project and he, being out of the country, directed me to his Pinterest for guidance on what to do.
There’s no way I’d ever get into this, was my first impression after joining. (Oh, for those learning about Pinterest for the first time, I’d summarize it as a personal wall where you pin pictures of interest to you.) I wondered where anyone would ever find anything to pin here. Do you go online to browse the internet for things to pin? And how could you ever figure out whose accounts to follow other than your friends’?
In the four days since I joined, I’ve received an average of four emails per day, informing me of a new follower to my pins. All from friends, of course, who are probably just doing the courteous thing to welcome me to another procrastination device. What has struck me, though, is the response those email notifications evoked in me…
Seemingly out of nowhere, I found myself thinking about my audience. How shall I portray myself to them? What impression would I like for them to have of me based on my pins? Before I was even aware of it, I got caught up in fabricating an image of myself for a pass-time I’m not even certain I’ll keep up with!
This realization has spurred many, many thoughts that I’ll probably come back to flesh out at some point here…How to find the balance between decorum and authenticity…Self-image versus projected persona…My blogging philosophy…Leadership when you actually have followers…The wall versus the timeline on facebook…etc etc etc…
So anyway, I’m on Pinterest…for now 🙂 Let me know if you’d like an invitation!
I think these are good questions to ask. Sometimes I wonder if what I post for the whole world to see would cause Jesus to say “thou, when thou bloggest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, blog to thy father which is in secret.”
hmmm. That makes me think about the whole privacy debate…For a Christian, there should be an added dimension which involves what God would like us to keep private. hm. Brain fodder..!
Oh wow. You definitely put a lot more thought into it than I do. Is it aesthetically pleasing and/or practical/functional? Is the website the pin originates from (relatively) free of profanity or other questionable language/images? If answer yes to both, I pin it. 🙂
But I’m glad you shared this. It makes better sense now why it takes energy to get you to join something new–you need to understand the philosophical ramifications behind it. Intense. Nonetheless, welcome to the pinning world.
By the way, you should be tweeting links to your blogs! Hehe.
hahaha. I didn’t realize it, but ya, I guess I kinda made it a philosophical question rather than a pragmatic one…hmmm.
what’s the easiest way to tweet a blog?
I want a Pinterest invite!
done!
welcome 😉