Author Topic: Pintrest - Commoditizing Relationships  (Read 10207 times)

uspsfanalan

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Pintrest - Commoditizing Relationships
« on: March 19, 2012, 08:16:58 AM »
I wonder if anyone on here is familiar with Pintrest. My wife was recently invited to join the site and has been spending a bunch of time on it. To anyone not familiar, Pintrest is sort of a social media site, that lets you pin things to a virtual wall and your friends can see the things you pin. Some people pin funny cartoons, things they want to make and garden projects they want to do.

More than anything else people pin crap they want to buy. There are lots of shoes, wedding rings, dresses, kid clothes, workout equipment. My wife thinks she's getting ideas for projects but to me it's just shopping. I was very frustrated with her this weekend for spending half of the day Saturday and Sunday on it. I don't care if she surfs the web all day, or sews or paints or sleeps with her cat. Whatever makes her happy is fine by me. It's just that Pintrest seems completely geared toward women buying crap and getting their friends to buy the same crap. It seems to be another way to us all into a bunch of consumerist sheep. It's the Tupperware party for 2012.

That's my rant. Feel free to check the site yourself. Be warned I hear it is addictive.

http://pinterest.com/

Sparafusile

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Re: Pintrest - Commoditizing Relationships
« Reply #1 on: March 19, 2012, 09:06:17 AM »
I checked out the site this morning and wasn't impressed. Site like that, Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, LiveJournal, etc don't hold any interest for me. Maybe it's just my introverted nature, but I just don't understand why people spend all their time there. Then again, I can't understand why people spend so much time watching TV either.

wilk916

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Re: Pintrest - Commoditizing Relationships
« Reply #2 on: March 19, 2012, 09:27:22 AM »
Yikes.  The first time I heard about this site was when my wife mentioned some design she saw.  Off to add it as a blocked site on our home router... ;^)

Honestly, though.  I have struggle in the past with my wife's love of material items.  It, unfortunately, was ingrained in her by her upbringing.  The last 10 years have been full of struggles regarding how to manage money (she often likes to spend it, and I often like to hoard it).  So I feel your pain.

FYI, BNL did a great post on how he got his wife on board:

http://www.bravenewlife.com/02/how-to-get-your-significant-to-embrace-a-brave-new-life/

I think we need "Spousal Support" category on this forum.

arebelspy

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Re: Pintrest - Commoditizing Relationships
« Reply #3 on: March 19, 2012, 10:06:15 AM »
Depends on who your wife follows, I guess.

Mine finds awesome recipes there, great DIY projects, etc.

She keeps wanting to build furniture from pallets based on stuff she sees there.

If anything, it's made her less wanting to buy stuff, more wanting to make stuff.

She does waste a lot of time there though, it is addictive I hear.
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judgemebymyusername

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Re: Pintrest - Commoditizing Relationships
« Reply #4 on: March 19, 2012, 10:49:37 AM »
Depends on who your wife follows, I guess.

Mine finds awesome recipes there, great DIY projects, etc.

She keeps wanting to build furniture from pallets based on stuff she sees there.

If anything, it's made her less wanting to buy stuff, more wanting to make stuff.

She does waste a lot of time there though, it is addictive I hear.

Same thing happened with my fiance. She sees a lot of DIY decorations and ideas which I think is a good thing. We've gotten a lot of frugal wedding ideas from pinterest so you'll hear no complaints from me. Self control is the key.

boy_bye

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Re: Pintrest - Commoditizing Relationships
« Reply #5 on: March 19, 2012, 11:01:09 AM »
yeah, i actually really like pinterest, because it keeps the source from which you got your "pin," unlike many other aggregating websites out there (like polyvore).

running a small fashion business with a very narrow niche, i really like using pinterest to share cool things that fall in that niche with my followers. i end up pinning a lot of beautiful and hilarious vintage images. other folks i follow pin creative DIY projects, innovative uses for everyday objects, and recipe ideas.

but, yeah, the potential for awfulness is totally there. i have had to unfollow some people who seem very oriented on a couple of things i REALLY don't like:
(a) all the boring crap they want to buy (why do i care that you really want these placemats again?)
(b) "thin"-spiration which, to my mind, can easily veer into disordered eating territory.

kolorado

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Re: Pintrest - Commoditizing Relationships
« Reply #6 on: March 19, 2012, 11:33:11 AM »
I have heard of it sooooo much over the last year but I keep resisting. I have enough time wasters in my life right now already. I know I would love it for recipes, sewing, upcycling inspiration and small space living ideas. I was able to resist Facebook for several years until I got fed up with always being out of the loop with my siblings. Because now people seem to think if they post about their life/events/updates/urgent things on FB they don't have any other communication obligations outside of the site and it's YOUR fault if you weren't a member to see it. Even my mom didn't call me when she was taken to the ER in an ambulance. She posted it on FB. I don't understand the "new" way of communication I guess. Must also resist Pinterest.......

uspsfanalan

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Re: Pintrest - Commoditizing Relationships
« Reply #7 on: March 19, 2012, 12:19:41 PM »
I suppose I should cut my wife some slack. She hasn't actually bought anything from there and she has really come around to a more frugal lifestyle. We recently agreed to eat out only once every two weeks instead of once a week. Some of the ideas that she gets from Pintrest are creative ways to use discarded materials. She was considering cutting some empty wine bottles to make tumblers out of them.

On the other hand when we got married she had 11k in credit card debt that we used to fight about all of the time. We have since paid off the cards and started saving around 30% of our income. I would like to move up to 35% or 40% but I'm going to need her help to do it.

A spousal support category is a great idea. I'm trying to make slow and steady changes with my wife. I have to remember to find something that motivates my wife to save. In the past her motivation to save was to stop arguing with me. Once we paid off the debt and started saving money it was to buy a house. Once we bought the house her motivation was to have an emergency fund. Now that we've got the emergency fund there isn't a real reason, in her mind, to save so much anymore.

Lately we've been having a lot of conversations about freedom and how the 8 to 6 work schedule isn't working for us anymore. We both have perfectly fine office jobs that we're good at, but don't want to do forever. I think the reason I worry when I see her spending so much time on Pintrest is that its potentially backsliding into some old habits.

arebelspy

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Re: Pintrest - Commoditizing Relationships
« Reply #8 on: March 19, 2012, 03:44:09 PM »
I suppose I should cut my wife some slack. She hasn't actually bought anything from there and she has really come around to a more frugal lifestyle. We recently agreed to eat out only once every two weeks instead of once a week. Some of the ideas that she gets from Pintrest are creative ways to use discarded materials. She was considering cutting some empty wine bottles to make tumblers out of them.

That's awesome, good for her.  Rome wasn't built in a day.  Progress is encouraging.  :)

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RoseRed

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Re: Pintrest - Commoditizing Relationships
« Reply #9 on: March 20, 2012, 07:32:19 AM »
I like Pinterest. I think it depends how you use it - My feed is mostly ideas for new things to cook, ideas for fun (usually free) things to do with kids, beautiful pictures or interesting people to find out more about, interesting ways to re-use and make things from stuff that I might throw out. I also make clothes style boards, which I use so that if I see a good bargain in a charity shop, I have a good mental picture of the sort of thing that will go well with my other clothes and get worn, and it's easier to resist the things that seem like a good buy because they are pretty but don't actually go with anything else I own.

uspsfanalan

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Re: Pintrest - Commoditizing Relationships
« Reply #10 on: March 20, 2012, 08:29:49 AM »
So maybe this is part of my misunderstanding. When I go on the web to find something I usually have a pretty good idea of what I’m looking for. I type it into google and very quickly I’m looking at what I originally intended to look at.

Pintrest doesn’t let you do that from what I can tell. So it’s more akin to walking around the mall/antique shop/greenhouse/art gallery all combined, sort of window browsing. Since I hate browsing and my wife loves browsing, maybe that is what leads to our difference in opinion. Using the recipe example, I would just go to allrecipies, america’s test kitchen or epicurious. I would type in what I want and start making it. So I’m thinking Pintrest is successful because it simulates the browsing experience, therefore making it way more popular with women than with men.

arebelspy

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Re: Pintrest - Commoditizing Relationships
« Reply #11 on: March 20, 2012, 08:45:53 AM »
It's an aggregated StumbleUpon with much easier ways to share.
I am a former teacher who accumulated a bunch of real estate, retired at 29, spent some time traveling the world full time and am now settled with three kids.
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zinnie

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Re: Pintrest - Commoditizing Relationships
« Reply #12 on: March 20, 2012, 12:26:42 PM »
I really like Pinterest, but I too am irritated by the commercialism of it (and the ignorant political debates that get started, the thinspo pics/ quotes, and cheesy mom/Christian quotes, but that's besides the point.) My first thought upon finding it was seeing everyone's pins and comments of "this is so cute!" "I need this" to completely silly unnecessary things. Like event-specific dinnerware, and elaborately expensive and match-y nurseries.

On the other hand, if you just follow specific people instead of hanging out at the main page, there are a lot of good frugal ideas that can come out of it, as others have mentioned. I use it mostly for knitting patterns, DIY ideas, and recipes. And just bookmarking stuff I find on the web that I want to return to.

People obsessed with buying tons of unnecessary stuff are going to make that the focus regardless of what site they are using though, right? There could be some good antimustachian wall of shame stories that come out of those pins, I'm sure...

bnl

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Re: Pintrest - Commoditizing Relationships
« Reply #13 on: March 20, 2012, 02:22:01 PM »
My wife uses pinterest.  I don't.  I try to avoid the internet as much as possible. 

I don't think pinterest drives bad consumerist behaviors.  Rather, I think pinterest accelerates existing behaviors.  If someone is a consumerist by nature, then pinterest helps them form online bonds with people of like values and leads to more consumerism.  If someone is into the whole ERE/MMM lifestyle, then they will find people of similar minds and share useful ideas.  In the case of the latter, it can drive consumerism down.

In my wife's case, she has two current kicks:  good recipes with staple ingredients, and home-schooling. And so she gets tons of good info about these two topics. Nothing wrong with that, in my mind.

I guess what I'm getting at is this: If you don't like the material being streamed to you or your SO from pinterest, maybe it's worth digging into why pinterest thinks that material is relevant to you or your SO.

daizy744

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Re: Pintrest - Commoditizing Relationships
« Reply #14 on: March 20, 2012, 07:24:19 PM »
I just subscribed to Pinterest this past weekend, after a friend was telling me about it. She's addicted. She's also an uber consumerist.

I see this site as a way to categorize and visualize all my "ideas for the future" bookmarks that I had in Firefox.  I had bookmarked a bunch of sites with recipes I'd like to try and craft or sewing projects that I'd like to make one day. I had other bookmarks for ideas for our future house. Now they are all on Pinterest. Hopefully the site won't disappear by the time I want to do the projects that I "pinned" :-D

HeidiO

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Re: Pintrest - Commoditizing Relationships
« Reply #15 on: March 20, 2012, 10:05:55 PM »
I enjoy pinterest.  I have some boards : April Menu, Places I'll go, Things to Make for the House.  You can pin anything off the internet onto your board.  For instance, today I made a chicken dish and a paleo banana bread I had pinned.  And okay, I do have a couple of cute puppies pinned.  But it's free entertainment.
Heidi

sol

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Re: Pintrest - Commoditizing Relationships
« Reply #16 on: March 20, 2012, 10:39:20 PM »
Do we have any male pintarest users here, or is this purely a site that appeals to women?

arebelspy

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Re: Pintrest - Commoditizing Relationships
« Reply #17 on: March 21, 2012, 08:55:43 AM »
Do we have any male pintarest users here, or is this purely a site that appeals to women?

I think the large majority of pintrest users are female.
I am a former teacher who accumulated a bunch of real estate, retired at 29, spent some time traveling the world full time and am now settled with three kids.
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ferfischer

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Re: Pintrest - Commoditizing Relationships
« Reply #18 on: March 21, 2012, 08:56:32 AM »
I have not found a single thing on pinterest i want to buy and haven't.  I find things I want to make (recipes, crafts, kid ideas, and gift ideas to make and ideas for special needs kids) but nothing I want to buy.  I use it as a "bookmarking" site for things I would bookmark in explorer into folders anyway.  I am a woman.  My husband has no interest in this, but he has no interest in a lot of things I keep track of (including facebook or anything social) so I don't really see how this is different.  Sure it's a time suck, but without pinterest there are plenty of those around - choose your poison.

shedinator

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Re: Pintrest - Commoditizing Relationships
« Reply #19 on: March 21, 2012, 09:07:53 AM »
Do we have any male pintarest users here, or is this purely a site that appeals to women?

Last I heard, the site was 80% populated by females.

Val

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Re: Pintrest - Commoditizing Relationships
« Reply #20 on: March 21, 2012, 09:21:19 AM »
I have an account in Pinterest and I really like it. I am NOT a consumerist, though, or I wouldn't like this forum so much ;-)
There are many ways to use Pinterest. I am an aspiring artist and I use it mainly to get inspiration and to see what other artists are doing. I also check recipes, DIY projects and beautiful photography. You can choose who to follow, so I am never bothered with things I'm not interested in.
As with other social media sites, this platform is not good or bad per se. It depends on how you use it.

uspsfanalan

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Re: Pintrest - Commoditizing Relationships
« Reply #21 on: March 21, 2012, 09:26:03 AM »
I just subscribed to Pinterest this past weekend, after a friend was telling me about it. She's addicted. She's also an uber consumerist.

The woman that introduced my wife to pintrest, her sister in law, is also an uber consumerist as well. Which is why I was on my guard as soon as I heard about it.

Like almost all things, Pintrest is not inherently good or evil, consumerist or non-consumerist, it’s all in how it is used. However, Pinterst was developed by a company that wants to make money, so it is designed to get you to part with your money by selling adds or some such thing. All that really means is that users have to be mindful about how the site is used. That’s pretty much the same as the rest of the internet.

fruplicity

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Re: Pintrest - Commoditizing Relationships
« Reply #22 on: March 21, 2012, 02:10:48 PM »
I'm a huge fan of pinterest and aware that it's addicting but so far am happy with my self-control around it (I spend about 1/2 hr a week browsing it - usually in 5 minute chunks). I love the things that people already mentioned, particularly revolving around DIY and creative inspiration. I recently planned a beer-tasting party for my husband using pinterest to collect and organize my ideas and recipes. I also have a frugal-themed "board" mainly with pretty quotes around living this lifestyle.

I don't think I use it correctly though - I had no idea it was as "social" as it is, I thought I could keep my boards private to the public. Maybe I can but I haven't figured it out? I use it for myself though, not to share.

I'm curious about its future, because I think it could get scary. In addition to the consumer-driven/thin-spiration images that I try to ignore, I hear they're having issues with the porn content potential!

R62

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Re: Pintrest - Commoditizing Relationships
« Reply #23 on: March 22, 2012, 09:18:42 PM »
Isn't Pinterest more than just about social interchange and users inspiring other users to buy crap?  Isn't it about someone making money off of anyone and everyone who clicks through to a website and buys crap?

Not to mention the tracking, tracking, tracking ....



arebelspy

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Re: Pintrest - Commoditizing Relationships
« Reply #24 on: March 22, 2012, 09:33:12 PM »
Isn't Pinterest more than just about social interchange and users inspiring other users to buy crap?  Isn't it about someone making money off of anyone and everyone who clicks through to a website and buys crap?

Not to mention the tracking, tracking, tracking ....

In a word?  No.

Did you read the many, many responses in this thread about the DIY nature, recipes, etc.?  Multiple people have stated they haven't bought anything because of Pinterest, and many have in fact saved money.

Who's making money off them?  Maybe a few advertisers, when someone clicks through to a site that has ads, on the few that don't have ads blocked.  Maybe.

But one doesn't need to be so cynical.  MMM makes money on his site as well, but that doesn't make it a bad site due to that.
I am a former teacher who accumulated a bunch of real estate, retired at 29, spent some time traveling the world full time and am now settled with three kids.
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uspsfanalan

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Re: Pintrest - Commoditizing Relationships
« Reply #25 on: March 23, 2012, 09:25:37 AM »

Not to mention the tracking, tracking, tracking ....

Pintrest does install a toolbar into your browser, so I would agree that there probably is some tracking. I have a Gmail account and rarely clear my cookies so I'm probably already tracked by most of the major internet players.

arebelspy

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Re: Pintrest - Commoditizing Relationships
« Reply #26 on: March 23, 2012, 09:38:10 AM »

Not to mention the tracking, tracking, tracking ....

Pintrest does install a toolbar into your browser, so I would agree that there probably is some tracking. I have a Gmail account and rarely clear my cookies so I'm probably already tracked by most of the major internet players.

Huh?  No it doesn't.  Or, if it does, it's completely optional.  Opting in to tracking and then complaining about it (not you but anyone who does) seems ridiculous to me.
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uspsfanalan

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Re: Pintrest - Commoditizing Relationships
« Reply #27 on: March 23, 2012, 11:36:49 AM »
In late January my wife and I built a coldframe out of wood and a glass storm door that someone in my neighborhood was throwing away. We planted lettuce seeds in February and they've grown to a nice crop of lettuce. I suggested that it would actually make a good pintrest post for her. She explained that she couldn't post it because the pictures would first have to be posted on a webpage. Then should could pin the information from that page onto one of her boards. She explained that she had a toolbar installed so she could pin stuff from any website.

So you are correct that it may be an optional part. I would acknowledge that there is likely tracking with the site, especially the toolbar or "Pin" button. I assume that anything I do on the internet is being tracked by someone anyway. I'm really not hating on Pintrest. Lots of people on this board find it useful so I'm trying to embrace the postive side of the format.

http://pinterest.com/about/goodies/

Goodies
“Pin It” Button
Pin It←  Right-click and select “Add to Favorites > Favorites Bar”
To install the “Pin It” button in Internet Explorer:
Display your Favorites Bar by clicking Tools > Toolbars > Favorites Bar
Right-click the “Pin It” button and select “Add to Favorites”
On the pop-up window, select “Create in: Favorites Bar”
When you are browsing the web, push the “Pin It” button to pin an image
Once installed in your browser, the “Pin It” button lets you grab an image from any website and add it to one of your pinboards. When you pin from a website, we automatically grab the source link so we can credit the original creator.

arebelspy

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Re: Pintrest - Commoditizing Relationships
« Reply #28 on: March 23, 2012, 11:45:54 AM »
That's quite the process to go through to make it do that.

But you're correct, assume everything you're doing on the internet (and most things in real life) is being tracked.
I am a former teacher who accumulated a bunch of real estate, retired at 29, spent some time traveling the world full time and am now settled with three kids.
If you want to know more about me, this Business Insider profile tells the story pretty well.
I (rarely) blog at AdventuringAlong.com. Check out the Now page to see what I'm up to currently.

HeidiO

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Re: Pintrest - Commoditizing Relationships
« Reply #29 on: March 23, 2012, 01:15:40 PM »
And now that google is tracking everything...  I can just imagine that coversation, "Judge, I swear it was my 16 yo son looking that up - not me!"  I've gotten so boring, I have the whole internet at my fingertips and I just want to find the crock-pot recipes and the puppy photos.

onehappypanda

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Re: Pintrest - Commoditizing Relationships
« Reply #30 on: April 02, 2012, 01:19:05 PM »
I like Pinterest quite a bit. You can pick and choose which boards you follow, so it's easy to weed out the "consumerist" boards. I have boards for recipes, DIY or crafty ideas, outfit and home decor inspirations (which I use to make new outfits and decor from things I already own), fitness routines and ideas, interesting reading. So far I haven't bought a single thing as a result of seeing it (or something similar) on Pinterest. I've actually gotten some pretty good money-saving ideas on there, like repurposing items that I had lying around, making my own household cleaners using stuff I already had, and so on.

I seen my boards kind of like a free magazine, full of images I picked myself and devoid of all the silly "Things You Must Buy for Spring!!!" lists.

But you absolutely could use it in an ultra-consumerist way, and many many people do. It's a tool, it's up to you what you want to do with it. Most people are consumerist, so that's how they use it. Doesn't have to be the case though.

The tracking and advertising thing, I see as a fairly separate issue. Also pretty much on par with what's happening on the rest of the internet. Probably annoying and it could be used in unsettling ways, but so could my Google searches and I'll probably never give those up.