By Hannah Taylor ’15, Contributor
If I am being completely honest, I’m addicted to Pinterest. I first heard about it in December, when one of my friends showed me her boards full of wondrous pictures of delicious food, stylish clothes, and artistic photography. I went home and immediately made my own account becoming instantly sucked into my computer. I was struck by the craze of “repinning” pictures I found all over the site and soon spent the majority of my free time scrolling down its incredibly long pages looking for gold.
But I wasn’t alone in my new obsession. By January around sixteen million people were counted as unique visitors to the site, as it has grown internationally since its creation in 2009. Most of its users are women between the ages of eighteen to thirty and it’s obvious why. Pinterest is full of craft and hair ideas, to pictures of every woman’s dream house, wedding, and vacations.
But what is the point of Pinterest? As I looked around for articles and reviews from other people I figured it out: there isn’t a point.
Pinterest calls itself a “virtual pinboard”, which in turn, could mean anything. Other users call it an online scrapbook, picture sharing database, etc., while Wikipedia calls it (my personal favorite) a “pinboard-style social photo sharing website”. However, all that this means is a website that encourages sixteen million to pursue their photo hoarding.
While I was looking around the site I realized that most of the pins were of impossible recipes, expensive clothes, and obscure photography. Therefore Pinterest is NOT an online scrapbook, because scrapbooks are for pictures of family, friends, things we have done, and our own memories to be remembered. My opinion? I deem Pinterest a time-consuming vortex of our desires.
This site can create a vicious cycle of cravings, because as soon as someone sees something they want they immediately think they need to have it. As time goes on, more wants turn into more needs, and then all of a sudden nothing the person actually has is good enough. The evidence can be found in the names of any user’s boards (Obsessed with, Things I Need, Bucket List, Dream Wedding, etc…).
What’s even worse? Pinterest is a ticking time bomb for lawsuits raised by angry photographers whose photos have been pinned up onto the website without their consent. Legally pictures, or any form of art, cannot be used for public distribution unless the owner of the copyright agrees themself. Text boxes underneath each pin were inserted so that users could state where each pin was found, however it’s still not enough legally. Amazingly enough if such things do happen Pinterest states in its Copyright agreement that it is responsible for nothing, leaving you paying for not only your own, but Pinterest’s lawyer as well. Seems like an awful lot of inconvenience for simply pinning something you like.
When asked about the subject, Mr. Ben Silbermann (co-founder of the website) said that Pinterest, “cares deeply about copyright”. Some Pinterest users have shut down their accounts because they’re scared of the legal consequences that could fall into play if they get caught in a lawsuit.
After careful thought I decided, I think I’ll stick to a good ol’ stack of magazines and scissors.
Photo courtesy of neahin.org
Sources:
- http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/12/technology/start-ups/pinterest-aims-at-the-scrapbook-maker-in-all-of-us.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&sq=pinterest&st=cse&scp=2
- http://articles.businessinsider.com/2012-02-28/tech/31106641_1_repinning-copyright-entire-image
HJM
