Pinterest.
When it first came on the scene, I didn't pay much attention to the hoopla. When it comes to social networking, I'm usually a little late to the party. I didn't join Facebook until 2008, and that was only because I worked at a University and I realize that 'kids these days' didn't check their email anymore. I'm still not on Twitter or Instagram and my cell phone is a plain ol' cell phone. No internet or 4G or gps or any of that cool stuff.
Anyway, I heard about Pinterest, and wasn't really interested. People raved about it, and talked about how much time they spent "looking at pins". No thank you, I had plenty of things to suck my time. Then, more and more people I knew - regular people - were talking about it. So I logged on, ready to sign up, to join the masses. What the what? I had to
request an invite? I was immediately turned off. Pinterest was a snob! It condescendingly sent me an email, thanking me for my request and allowing me to 'view some pins'. I still didn't know what it was talking about, but I knew that I didn't like it. I felt like a girl trying to rush a sorority, and was told "sorry, we're full. but if you want to hang around pathetically, you can. here - we're having a party, you can watch from outside and maybe later we'll invite you to come in". {I never rushed a sorority - I just sound like I have issues.}
So, I checked my email, waiting for my precious email to be accepted. I did 'view some pins'. I still didn't know how the heck it worked, but was sure that I would be informed of how it all worked once I was in. Mark Zuckerburg was kind enough to walk me through FB, afterall, and even "Tom" was an automatic friend on MySpace back in the day {I only joined that so I could stalk high school friends, and never posted anything about myself, not even a picture}.
When I was finally 'accepted' {Hey look, mom & dad - I have been accepted to Pinterest! You should be so proud!} I was ready to get pinning. But wait, what do I do? I look at other people's pins and then save them as my own? People were following me, and I found myself following others, even though I didn't want to. I couldn't figure it out. I was supposed to pin things I found on the interwebs, and pin them here so everyone can see what I'm doing?
Wait. A. Gosh. Darn. Minute.
If you've ever read this little blog o' mine, you know that I've been around for awhile. I have been blogging since 2006. 2006! Clay Aiken released his first single, Suri Cruise was born, Justin Timberlake was Bringing Sexy Back, and I started a blog {it was a slow news year, otherwise}.
In starting my own blog, I read other blogs. Lots and lots of blogs. Blogs written by a woman who was married to a schizophrenic man, blogs about parenting, blogs about Christianity, blogs about blogs, blogs about baking, blogs about saving money, and eventually, blogs about decorating. By 2010, I had bookmarked 40 or so of my favorite blogs. Some I would visit every. single. day. Others I would wait until a lazy Saturday morning and visit every. single. blog on my list.. I could be on the computer for hours. Nolan's Mother's Day card this year listed words he associated with me: smart, intelligent, working, reading, relaxing, ice cream, computer, sleep, jawbreakers. I laughed but wanted to cry. I was spending too much time on the 'puter. {I am proud that he mentioned ice cream & jawbreakers, though, I love that boy.} I also had folders saved with recipes, ideas, crafts, etc. I had been saving sites and files to my computer for over 6 years!
Pinterest totally ripped me off! And now, my favorite bloggers were getting in on the action. Well, not me, no sir. You see, I didn't want readers. I had once posted a project I did on a blog I followed, and I've had literally hundreds of people read that post. It's a horrible post. There are blurry pictures of my kid playing basketball, and my camera makes my project look all weird. I suddenly felt like I needed to go back and proof read everything I had ever written. But I didn't write it for them, I wrote it for you. I couldn't handle the pressure. After finally figuring it out, because they made it so difficult, I canceled my Pinterest account. I'm good, Mr. Whateveryournameis {I still think it's weird that a guy invented Pinterest}, I am totally fine without ya. I was at a social where the food was wonderful. Every time I complimented a dish, a different person would just say
"Pinterest!". I thought I was going to punch someone in the face.
So then. My computer crashed. Okay, okay, I crashed it. I was trying to be awesome by installing new software, but it wasn't the software I thought I was and I totally wiped the hard drive clean. It's still messed up and Kelly still isn't thrilled with me about it. Anyway - my blogs were gone! All of them! At first, I panicked. My friends were missing, floating around in cyberspace, how would they ever go on without me to read them??? My horror was followed by a sense of freedom. I was not longer a slave to my laptop. I didn't HAVE to visit every single site. Now, I sit down at the computer in the study, check email, Facebook and occasionally write a blog post {not one this long, of course!}. I still check in on a couple of my very favorite sites on my Kindle, but that's totally different, right? Right?
Last month, I hosted a social gathering at my house. Most of the girls coming had never been to our house before. I cleaned and tidied, but that's about it. It's funny, the Angela of 5 years ago would have painted or stained something, frantically rearranged the furniture, purchased new something-or-others, in anticipation of having 40 ladies over. Not anymore, I'm kind of over it. I didn't even paint the hallways where I had filled in holes. Humph -
over it. At the party, more than one person commented on my "Pinterest House". STOP.
No, ma'am, I don't have a Pinterest house. "But the painted wallpaper, the repurposed chest, the chalkboard pantry, the book page wreath, these are all Pinterest ideas." That was when I vehemently denied even knowing what Pinterest was, and claimed that the ideas were mine, or a spin off of an idea from a blog that I follow.
That's when I realized.
I was ticked that I was not the only creative person in the room anymore. I could not claim ownership of an idea. My ideas were no longer original. No one oohed and aahed over my creative ideas, because someone (or 50 other someones) were doing the same thing and "pinning" it, for all the world to see. I needed to get over myself.
I now take a gander at Pinterest every once in a while, but man, there is some weird stuff on there. How many pictures of Jennifer Anniston's hair and cute little puppies can the world look at? And Lord knows, I don't need another technology related time-suck in my life {Draw Something and Temple Run have been released for Kindle!}.
I may have requested another invite, but I'm not sure if I want to accept. I have a feeling that I will just get frustrated ALL OVER AGAIN. In the meantime, my goal is to just smile and nod, and resist the urge to flinch when I compliment someone and their reply is
"Pinterest!"
Happy Pinning!
