Online Etiquette - How Pinteresting are you?

In recent events, I have decided to dedicate my blog to thoughts on what is SOCIALLY acceptable on SOCIAL media. 

This is not professional in any manner or meant to be offensive in anyway. My intention is to inform the general public that there are unspoken rules of using Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, etc. and I see these rules broken more than I would like.

I will admit, Pinterest is addicting. It has something for everybody. You don't have to be crafty, fit, artistic, intelligent, rich, etc. to use it. Really, Pinterest is used to form ideas into your head. To help oneself to become more recreational. I recently took a Communications class at Brigham Young University. The Professor asked the class, "I want you and a partner to come up with a list, in order, of the top influential social media sites." Facebook was at the bottom of the list. I don't know about you, but I rarely feel inspired to do anything while scrolling through a jumbled mess of so-and-so liked this picture and so-and-so was tagged in 3 photos. The top influential website was Pinterest, followed by Tumblr. So, if Pinterest is so influential, why does it only have 70 million users compared to Facebook's 1.4 billion? Well, because it is designed to draw in the female demographic. 

Pinterest has this stigma of being girly. I hate that. Yes, it has wedding stuff and home crafts, but it also has home repair tricks, hilarious photos, gadgets, workout routines, etc. I don't know why it has been deemed for girls only but I guess, why is video games deemed only for boys?

If you Urban Dictionary Pinterest you will find the definition -a social networking site that allows you to figuratively "pin" pictures of your likes/interests in a simple, organized fashion. Organized. That is the main influential factor of Pinterest. It allows the user to organize and visualize ideas they like into different categories so they are an easy find when needed. No one is going to plan their wedding, birthday party or home from start to finish with their pins on Pinterest. That would be absurd. What Pinterest is actually used for is to look and pin what you like, for example, styles, color schemes, photos, etc. Then after getting an idea of what ideas capture your interest, you put it all together and creat your own thing. Hence being influential. 

Being influential is not what I have beef about with some Pinterest users. What I am opposed to is the users who decide to pin 50+ pins from the same category in one sitting. Whether it is interesting to me or not, it is completely overwhelming. 

If I am seeing a 100 quilt designs or 45 pictures of the same celebrity, I'm not feeling inspired. I'm feeling like I need to frantically scroll to where I can see anything else besides the same thing over and over. It gets old real quick. Plus, I know there is no way any one individual is going to go back and find that one pin that they really liked. Pinterest should be used for the ideas that get the mind to whirl, not give you every cake idea under the sun. If you want to pin a bunch of the same thing, just mix and match! Pin a recipe here, a quote there, an outfit, and then another recipe. That way, we're all not overwhelmed on the receiving end of your pins. 

The not so ironic thing about Pinterest is that the purpose of it is in the name itself. Pinterest.  Find the things that interest you and share them with anyone who follows you. Don't shove your favorite celebrity down the rest of our throats; that is what hidden boards are for. Use Pinterest to inspire your fellow pinners to paint their nails, not drive them to see every design possible. If they wanted to see all  the designs for themselves, they could just search for it in the search bar. 

So, let's keep things Pinteresting for all of us, and we could be pin-pals. 

Online Etiquette - The Facebook Baby

In recent events, I have decided to dedicate my blog to thoughts on what is SOCIALLY acceptable on SOCIAL media.

This is not professional in any manner or used to be offensive in anyway. My intention is to inform the general public that there are unspoken rules of using Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, etc and I see these rules broken more than I would like. 

The first thing I would like to address is mother's forcing their children down your throat. Okay, I will admit I am not a mother. However, I do love children and I absolutely support motherhood. I think moms rock! I know for sure when I have kids that I want my friends to know how rockin' of a mom I am and that my kids are totally awesome. Mom's do so much for their kids and they deserve to have their accomplishment's realized. Mom's love their kids so much! 

...but do you have to love them 5 times a day on Facebook or Instagram? No. What cracks me up the most is that the kids don't actually have a Facebook or see any of this stuff until they are older... which the public has already seen...how embarrassing! There isn't any tagging and sharing with the kids like Facebook and Instagram is supposed to be used for. The over excessive kid pictures seem to be just a ploy to obtain more likes or notice on the web. "Oh I love them so much!!!" Really now? Did they know how much you love them, because, yes, you stated it to the whole world but they didn't see that. 

I'm kidding though. Of course you love them :)

Babies are so darn cute! I could hold one all day if anyone asked me, but if I am scrolling for 30 seconds and seeing the same child's face with the captions "just woke up :)", "lunch time", "play time", "he loves his dog", "aw, he fell asleep on the floor", "daddy is home! Yay!", "bath time", and "bed time". Please, for the love, no one needs to see a picture of everything your kid does that day.  And for heaven's sake do not put photos of the aftermath of an accident. We don't want to see your kids crying faces with scratches, bruises, sickness, rashes, broken bones, etc. I mean how am you supposed to respond to that? You can't "like" it. -Yay, kids look great with scrapes on their face!- The only thing you can do is comment, "Ow, I'm so sorry they hurt themselves." ...which is usually what the first 3 comments say but with different wording. I'm willing to bet the parents are already sorry that their child is hurt. So why post a picture? A plea for pity?

However, I do love seeing kids winning awards, taking their first bath, making huge messes, playing sports, and celebrating birthdays... and I really love seeing moms IN pictures with their kids. If you spend you're whole life behind the lens trying to capture every moment, you'll miss the actual moment and only remember it through the screen of a phone camera.

 I, too, have experience with missing moments. I wish that I would not have lived through so many lake days, holidays, and vacations trying to snap pictures for memories because my greatest recollection of those moments have ended up being the taking-pictures part. 

Annie Leibovitz, an american photographer, said, "The camera makes you forget you're there. It's not like you are hiding but you forget, you are just looking so much."

I like this quote a lot because sometimes I forget to just sit and watch the sunset instead of taking picture after picture trying to get the perfect lighting. 

I'm not saying to never take pictures; I'm just saying take less. Keep the moments for yourself, don't give them to the camera. Be selfish. Those are your kids, not Facebook's. Don't "share" all your moments because it's your story, not ours.