enough with the Pinterest hate

Recently I have seen several articles that refer to the hundreds of moms who weep on their pillows at night because of Pinterest. Why? Apparently it's because on their friends' boards, they see the sewing projects, the fancy cakes, the incredible birthday parties, and the perfectly decorated living rooms, and since they are not doing all those things, they feel inadequate, inferior, and depressed.

I don't think they are using Pinterest correctly. If you don't care to do more than cupcakes (from a mix) and a present for your children's birthday parties, then why in the world are you following birthday party boards on Pinterest? Go to those boards and click the Unfollow button right now! You do not need to follow every board that every one of your Facebook friends creates.

Pinterest can be a really useful tool to help you organize your goals and build up your talents. I started using it because I had seen several sewing ideas online that I wanted to save and I didn't want to have one hundred bookmarks on my browser. It's great because if I am in the mood to start a project, I can go to my sewing board on Pinterest and get a reminder of some of the things I wanted to make--and the bonus is that there's a picture so I don't have to go to the website to remember what it looked like. I have Pinterest boards for recipes, sewing, things to do with my kids, ideas for my three month supply class, and a few more. I don't have boards for birthday parties, decorating my house, or making fancy cakes. I don't have a board for any holidays. I don't like spending a lot of time on those things. I also only follow specific boards where the friend seems to consistently pin things that I find interesting. Currently I'm following 14 boards. If a person starts obsessively pinning recipes for mashed cauliflower and quinoa burgers, I unfollow, because I'm not looking for that kind of recipe right now. I have been very purposeful about how I use Pinterest so that it is useful to me instead of irritating and depressing, and I have benefited from using it.

So my suggestion for the people who get depressed by Pinterest is that you take some time to evaluate how you are using it. Make a few boards for topics that sincerely interest you. Only follow friends' boards if you find their pins useful. And keep in mind that Pinterest is meant to be used to share and keep track of ideas. For most people it's not a place to show off the things they have done; it's a place to share things they might try. Chances are that mom who has twenty pins on her "Sally's Fifth Birthday" board is only going to use three or four of the ideas. So don't feel inferior that you're not doing all of the things your friends pin, because they're not doing them all either.

At least, that's my take on it.