The app, Pinterest, is the purest form of social media due to it being an outlet for creativity, inspiration, and self-improvement. Pinterest is one of the few social media spaces where disturbing posts and harmful messages aren’t spread. While other apps would be more useful to you if you are looking for a means of communication or somewhere to mindlessly scroll, Pinterest is healthier for your brain and overall mental health.
What is Pinterest?
Pinterest is considered a creative discovery engine where users can search for and post ideas ranging from recipes, home decor, study tips, and new fashion, hair, and makeup trends. It is most popular with teenage and adult women, but can be used by anyone looking for inspiration. Personally, I love Pinterest and mostly look at fashion, nail ideas, jewelry, and even have a board called “my dream future” where I pin photos of things I am manifesting for my life.
When utilizing the app, there are different terms that are helpful to know. If you are scrolling on the main home page and see an image you like, for example, a photo of pink and blue Adidas Gazelle sneakers, you can press and hold your finger on the image and press the push pin icon. Then you can save that image to a specific “board” labeled shoes, fashion, or whatever you want! When you go to your profile, you can see all of your different pins and the boards you sorted them into.
Even though most apps nowadays have an algorithm and use your past liked posts and interests to show you more on that topic, you truly create your own space on Pinterest. What I mean by that is when you first download the app, you choose a few categories of things you’re interested in like food, sports, science, fashion, art, and more. The app is up to date with trends and will show you what’s popular and posts from accounts that align with your aesthetic. When I open the Pinterest app, I expect to see pictures of trendy fashion, shoes, jewelry, art, purses, girly cars, and room decor because that’s what I am most interested in, and that is how the app serves me as a user.
Mental Health
Social media can be very damaging to one’s self esteem, mental health, and brain function. While we do love them, apps like Instagram and Facebook usually leave their users feeling down about themselves. For most young impressionable teenagers, constantly seeing unrealistic images of models, pro athletes, and celebrities showcasing their amazing looks and fantastic lives, makes some teens feel envious and anxious. Additionally, for an already anxious teen, the feeling of needing to respond to texts, videos, and pictures on Snapchat can add to their stress. Snapchat is a more favorable app than Instagram and Facebook, and is used as a main stream of communication for many teens.
With the use of algorithm data, like previously mentioned, the app will only show you posts you would want to see. If you dislike or even get triggered by seeing certain types of posts, as long as you don’t mark it as an “interest” of yours, you will never come across them. That is why Pinterest, as a form of social media, is so pure, likeable, and positive.
Also in terms of pinning posts to your “boards” on the app, I feel there are two very beneficial boards to have, one being a manifestation board. This is where you can pin posts relating to your dream life and future. This is something to look at when you need a reminder of what you want in life and why you should always try your best. A board like this would be helpful to anyone, but I think it would especially help someone who is struggling mentally and serve as good motivation and a reminder why working hard is important and will eventually get you to where you want to be.
On that note, another kind of beneficial board you can (and should) create is a self-help board. Pinning posts like self-improvement tips, study guides, clean recipes, and workout plans that encourage healthy habits are so important for our mental, physical, and emotional health. Similar to the manifestation board, a self-help board would be a positive addition to the life of just about anyone, but especially someone in a poor state of mind or body. This would be a space to set goals for yourself and if struggling, get yourself back on the right track.
Being active on Pinterest is a time to reflect and focus on yourself. No jealousy or harsh feelings involved. Almost every night once I get into bed, my favorite thing to do is play music through my AirPods and scroll through Pinterest and pin photos to my boards. This is the calmest point of my day and I love the feeling of tranquility.