Is Pinterest Making Us Crazy?
Sarah Herbert | @herbyfulyloaded
Upon getting to work on Tuesday morning, I was feeling unusually drowsy. Luckily, I didn't have an overwhelming number of e-mails to take care of at eight o’clock in the morning. So I did what any normal college girl would do: I opened Pinterest.
It is definitely safe to say that Pinterest is my social media obsession. I have boards for meals, desserts, hot guys, female celebrities, cute puppies, my future home, my future wedding, my dream closet, exercise routines, art, travel spots, and many more. When typed out, I realize that sounds a little ridiculous.
As I was aimlessly scrolling through recipes, kitchen sets, summer cocktails, and nature scenes, I scrolled past a cute summer outfit and a plate of American flag themed cake balls (yum). I kept scrolling, but noticed I started to get anxious, and felt like I was forgetting something. Eventually I got frustrated because I couldn't pinpoint what was stressing me out so early in the morning. I closed Pinterest to check my e-mails, and that only made it worse. No e-mails, so I reloaded Pinterest again (a mere ten seconds later). I still couldn't shed the feeling, and scrolled back up to that outfit and cake balls and pinned them both. Immediately, my anxiety subsided.
Upon realization that my lack of pinning caused me so much stress so early, I knew then that Pinterest was actually making me crazy.
If you’ve ever been a Pinterest person, you know what I’m talking about. Pinterest is a progressive and useful social media avenue for building business personalities, but many people use Pinterest on a personal level, and about 84% of the time is spent pinning on their own boards. To me, Pinterest is like the current version of the SIMS computer game (talk about a #ThrowbackThursday). SIMS allowed you to create an ideal world of your own, with your dream house, people, cars, and vacations, all at the will of your fingertips. Pinterest essentially does the same thing. With the click of a mouse, you can create your ideal kitchen, home, wedding, boyfriend, puppy, closet, and of course, impeccable cooking skills.
Pinterest allows us to escape boring tasks and average day-to-day schedules to this elusive internet lifestyle, where we can casually whip up Nutella-filled crescent rolls dipped in cinnamon sugar and eat in a unrealistically large, perfectly house with our shirtless, undeniably hot boyfriends. Sure, I intend to one day accomplish all of that. One day. But for now, I am constantly let down by the cookies that I burn and the cold truth that my closet does have four walls.
Pinterest creates creative, yet unrealistic goals, and pinners are left constantly striving for their real life to match their virtual life. Which, in all honesty, probably will not happen. Think about it. Constantly striving for perfection and knowing that you’ll never get there? No wonder we’re crazy. And did I mention the Pinterest feed never stops scrolling?