Pin Away Without Getting Anything Stuck In Your Thumb

           

I found this on Pinterest, where else?

Pinterest reminds me a lot of a math project I had to do in the second grade. We had to cut out pictures from magazines, glue them on to pieces of construction paper, and then add up the prices. Yes, I thought it was a really stupid “math project” also. Nevertheless, the project was prophetic of my impeccable taste – I had cut out beautiful chandeliers, high quality furniture, and puppies.  Up until recently, I had avoided joining Pinterest. Quite frankly, it seemed about as stupid to me as the math project I just described.

            Well, I have joined Pinterest. In short, I would describe it as a flameproof, clutter free way to scrapbook. I use the term scrapbook in the literal sense – putting scraps of paper into a book. It is a colossally huge waste of time, a great way to help yourself focus on things you can not and will not ever have, a scary abyss of copyright infringement spiraling out of control, a backhanded strange way to make people feel included and excluded, and now I can’t stop “pinning.” Really, the only reason I joined is to assist my lifelong sister friend in planning her wedding. She lives on another coast so the whole online cork board idea is actually a convenient way for me to show her things I’ve seen that might interest her. I would wager a pretty hefty bet that the majority of Pinterest users use it for wedding planning of some kind, whether or not it’s a real wedding is an entirely different story.

            There do seem to be some useful things out there, however. I was quite pleased when I discovered a board titled “World Dirndl.” Not only did it have lots of beautiful dirndls to look at, there was a sub – board of “Ways to Wear Your Hair With Your Dirndl.” I’m sorry. You don’t understand that I’m serious? I’m not joking around. There was also a board full of pictures of Switzerland (here’s where we start to enter into the part of Pinterest that helps us jump into Loch Self Pity). It looks like people also have collections of recipes, but how that differs from the regular world-wide-web, I don’t think I follow.

            The thing I REALLY don’t understand is why I need to be sent an email every time someone I don’t know “repins” an image that I have “pinned.” Not only do I not care, but I don’t care. Did I say I don’t care? Am I supposed to feel validated that someone else was intrigued by the same image I was intrigued by? Should I feel concerned that no one is pinning the other things that I pinned? Should I be upset that this person chose to pin the one image that I pinned, but NOT to “follow” my entire board? It’s a whole new terrarium of social interaction all centered around a nonexistent, flame proof, cork-board-scrap-book. “I kind of liked that girl’s style – she picked some really nice floral arrangements. But then I TOTALLY lost her when she decided to use toilet paper holders for centerpieces.” WHO CARES….. (The voice in my head would actually be saying “UGH! Focus inward! Take a yoga class. Go to church. Stop criticizing other people. Get off your freakin’ computer. To quote the Buddha picture in my therapist’s waiting room ‘Occupy yourself.’)