Pinteresting

When I was younger I had a lot of binders.  Most people who know me can attest to this.  And what was in those binders?

Pictures I had ripped out of magazines and catalogs of things I liked: interesting travel articles, pretty bathrooms, a cute haircut.  I still remember a conversation just after college when a friend of James’ professed in a moment of newlywed angst, “She has binders of magazine clippings!”  This friend was totally shocked when James simply nodded, knowingly.

And let me say, those ripped out pages have served me well.  Yes, I had to dig through a mountain of binders to find a picture the size of a postage stamp that was burned into my memory of a beautiful flowering tree.  But I did in fact find it and that Vulcan magnolia is still the crown jewel of my old front yard.  Totally worth it.  I like to know what I like, and I like to reference it when I like, have money.

Then the Internet came along and I tried a couple of things that I thought would solve this mountain of reference materials problem I had.  Real Simple’s solution never worked and they abandoned it.  Online scrap booking just didn’t seem like the answer— I gave up scrap booking after high school and I’m never going back.  Scrap booking is dead to me.

And then the world of “social media” barfed-up an elegantly simple solution: Pinterest.

For the record, I have a completely dysfunctional relationship with Pinterest.  I love it and I hate it.  You feel it too, don’t you?  This strange draw… like ice cream in the freezer.  And then that slightly sick feeling after you’ve been pinning… for all of nap time.

I feel like I must get these feelings about Pinterest out on the table.

Why do I love it?

Let’s be honest.  The ultimate draw of Pinterest is that it lets you shop without spending any actual money.  You can pin these pictures of things you like, food you want to make, or places you want to visit and it’s almost just as good as actually redoing your home office, or visiting Botswana, or delving into that stack of banana French toast.

You can fantasize about how you want your life to look or your clothes to look and even if that pair of shoes stocks out, you still feel like they’re waiting for you in your closet because you pinned them down on your little board to have and to behold for all time.  Plus, you no longer need piles of magazines and catalogs mucking up your house to remind you of what you like… nirvana!

But then why do I hate it?

I’m sorry, we aren’t allowed to say hate in our family.  As Nate would say, “I no yike it.  No yike it.”

Well, first of all I think Pinterest may be driving the homogenization of art and design.  What?

I’m getting this sense that we’re all starting to like the same things.  Pretty objects displayed on white, artfully shadowed backgrounds.  Seem familiar?  Now everyone likes gray and white chevron throw pillows.  We’re all fans of eclectic-industrial chic.  We browse and pin and re-pin the same things from one virtual board to another.  Our tastes become one and the same and you show-up to brunch and everyone’s wearing this year’s Pantone color of the year: emerald.

Of course Pinterest isn’t the only reason for this, but it still makes me wonder.   I’ve noticed they’ve rolled-out some “secret board” feature which is just further evidence supporting my case.

I’m not so much worried about everyone buying the same thing I have— I still remember a time in second grade when my friend came to school in this three piece tank top, button-up shirt, shorts ensemble that was to die for.  I had to go to Mervyn’s to get the same thing.  She was totally cool about it.  I find having the same jacket/lamp/prom dress is really an opportunity for bonding.

But still, where is the diversity of thought?  Of design?  There is still a mystique that we crave from the hard to find, the hole-in-the-wall, the back door source.  Pinterest meets my needs for creativity, but leaves me feeling empty.  I have a similar relationship with Krispy Kremes.  Plus, it’s the ultimate materialistic escapism… which is all fine and dandy as long as we recognize why we like it so much and we don’t find ourselves amassing hundreds of pins when we should be updating our resumes or putting together our tax documents.

So a few weeks ago my brother came over and saw that I’d had these two big canvas pictures made of Jake and Nate, at their dirtiest.  Nathaniel is almost unrecognizable, his face covered in shaving cream.  Jacob is eating a chocolate ice cream cone in Sanibel.  And the genius of this idea is that I hung them side-by-side over the bathtub.

Geoff comes out to the living room after visiting the facilities, “Ha!  Those pictures above the tub are so funny.  How did you come up with that idea?!”

Me: “I just thought of it one day.  Most people would hang pictures of them in the tub with tons of bubbles, but I thought our dirtiest pictures would be better.”

Geoff: (skeptical) “Really, you thought of that yourself?  Oh, I bet that’s something you saw on Pinterest.”

I NO YIKE IT.

Now if you’ll excuse me…  I have some pinning to do on my fantasy backyard. 

Bath Time