So, like millions of other internet savvy women, I recently joined Pinterest. I got an account and instantly said; “I don’t get it, this is dumb” and then I went on with my life. That is, until I heard the words Pinterest about 200 more times here and there in everyday life and internetting around and I thought… “Ok, let’s go see what all the fuss is about”
It didn’t take long. It was like a light switch turned on. I got it. I understood instantly why it was such a great thing… and I will be the first to admit, I went a little nuts over it. I was pinning everything. I was finding myself looking for excuses to explore the dark corners of the Internet looking for the next cool thing to pin. And my heart fluttered every time I was notified that someone else had re-pinned my pin. I’ve since calmed down a bit and now, I pin more responsibly, but it doesn’t stop me from thinking it is an amazing tool for organizing things. Its both a bookmarking site and a discovery site, and I am in love.
Now, it goes without saying that most Pinterest users are women. There are some fellas on there, sure. But it’s safe to say that the Y chromosome isn’t at home amongst the pins. I’m not sure why this is, maybe it’s that the logo for Pinterest is in a nice pretty cursive typeface, and maybe just because that women are early to adopt it. I would say it is safe to assume that the men stay away from it because simply, it’s quite full of girly stuff.
I’d be willing to bet that there are some developers out there working on a “Manterest” site. One directed at men. I’d bet money though, that if Pinterest were male driven, the contributors’ content would be considerably different. I’m not trying to paint the picture that men only care about boobs and power tools, because I know that’s not true. I just think, to men, other things are important. And I’m not sure that sharing the best way to preserve and serve your chocolate chips to be a priority.
I started noticing a trend. I started to notice that particular things will get pinned over and over and over again. Occasionally these things are a particularly clever way to cook brussel sprouts, or some witty, life changing quote. More times than not, the pin that gets passed around is something really, really clever tip or trick that someone figured out to make her life easier. – some little thing she does in the home that saves time or energy.
This got me thinking:
Could Pinterest be the key to humanity’s collective evolution? Could sharing and easy access to these tiny tidbits of time saving nuggets free our minds enough to think about other more important things? Probably not anything of that magnitude, but there’s something there.
Now, is putting a soda bottle lid on your chocolate chip bag going to levitate us humans as a species to the next level? Doubtful, but it’s possible that if the network of Pinterest women all get on the same page, and we share our innovation and thoughts freely, we just might have a little more time to be happy… and we all know that when the ladies are happy, the world is a better place.