As digital technology advances,
many new forms of media are revolutionizing the way we live and interact with
each other. From social networks to blogging, the web connects us and allows us
to spread information faster and more widespread than ever before. One digital media artifact, Pinterest, has changed the way people discover, share and
organize ideas, interests and things.
Pinterest is a form of blogging
where a user can “pin” various things to their boards after discovering them
through Pinterest itself, or on the Internet in general. It is set up so one
can “follow” their friends, family, acquaintances, or anyone around the world
who has a Pinterest account. By following people, users can see recent pins,
which are featured as pictures with descriptions, on the main page, and either
repin or like them, which then organizes them into personal categories called
boards. Users can create as many boards as they want, and organize pins as they
please. Similar to pinning things on a corkboard in an office, Pinterest is the
virtual way to share, store and organize products and ideas.
Each pin on Pinterest is actually a
link. By clicking on the picture of a pin, the link will open, and the user
will be directed to a new page where they can read more about the recipe,
product or article, for example.
Created by Ben Silbermann, Paul Sciarra and Evan
Sharp in December 2009 and launched in March 2010, Pinterest was made to change
the way people share interests and ideas. Within the first 9 months after the
initial launch, it gained 10,000 users, according to Wikipedia. By August 2011, Time
magazine listed Pinterest as one of the top 50 best websites.
Pinterest features numerous categories where
users can browse through all the recent pins, whether they’re following them or
not. From cars, traveling, wedding ideas, photography, home decorating and
more, Pinterest brings people with similar interests together in one spot.
Personally, I use Pinterest to
organize things I find on the Internet. I mainly use it for recipes and travel
aspirations. I also use it as a reference to keep ideas for clothes and home
decorating. I primarily use Pinterest for myself, but I also connect with other
people, mainly my Facebook friends who are also on Pinterest. By following them
I see their pins first, and often repin them to my own boards. I’ve never
followed someone I don’t know, but people who I don’t know follow me because of
similar interests I suppose.
Another interesting way Pinterest
is used is for marketing. Companies can pin things for fans or followers to see
and click on the link for more information. Based on an article from
Entrepreneur.com, Pinterest is “driving more traffic to company websites and
blogs than YouTube, GooglePlus and LinedIn combined,” which is based on research
done in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
For example, I am following Roxy. I
often see them pinning clothes, art, photographs, and ladies they sponsor in
surfing, snowboarding and more. When I click on a pin from Roxy, it brings me
to a new window with their homepage and that product I selected. It is just
another way to market their products and ideas, mainly to get across to
Pinterest’s primary audience, women.
Women can arguably be Pinterest’s
main audience. They often possess a few more organizational skills than men,
and are mostly more intrigued by recipes, home decor and wedding ideas.
Although many men are also interested in these areas, I’m just speaking
generally. There are also categories that may appeal more to the average man,
including sports and cars and outdoorsy things. But for the most part, women
are the main audience of Pinterest.
According to this infographic on Pinterest’s audience demographics, women make up about 72 percent of users where men make up about 28 percent. Because women make up the majority of Pinterest, it can also be accountable for 40 percent of all social media driven purchases. The most users are aged 25 to 44, and the average income of all users is $25,000-50,000 a year.
According to this infographic on Pinterest’s audience demographics, women make up about 72 percent of users where men make up about 28 percent. Because women make up the majority of Pinterest, it can also be accountable for 40 percent of all social media driven purchases. The most users are aged 25 to 44, and the average income of all users is $25,000-50,000 a year.
Self-expression is large part of
Pinterest. Like blogging, as Andrew Sullivan illustrates, pinning up things
that express the user makes them feel an “exhilarating literary liberation,”
(Sullivan, pg 3) just in form of pictures. Everyone gets to make their own
boards and pin their own pins, just as people get to write exactly what they
want on blogs. Looking at someone’s boards on Pinterest can really tell you a
lot about them. Who they are. What they’re inspired by. What their dreams are.
This is how Pinterest also connects people from computers across the world.
Like Lisa Gitelman pointed out,
anyone and everyone can be on the Internet (Gitleman, p 146). Likewise, anyone
and everyone (who’s been invited) can join Pinterest and start pinning. There
are an uncountable number of types of people in this world, and just as another
form of digital media, Pinterest works to being us together. In fact, it’s even written in their mission.
Pinterest is ultimately considered a
digital artifact according to Lev Manovich because it is a form of “culture
(shifting from) computer-mediated forms of production, distribution and
communication,” (Manovich, p 19). Before Pinterest, our culture lacked an easy
and organized way to discover, store and share common interests. Sure, some of
this can be done through social networking, but it is not the primary purpose
of these sites. Now, Pinterest is actually connected with Facebook and Twitter
so pins can be shared and tweeted with people who aren’t even on Pinterest. The
social networking has combined with Pinterest to create one system of
communication, self-expression, and organizing.
Each pin that is pinned on a user’s
board on Pinterest has an embedded link within it, as stated earlier. This
could be evidence of a digital artifact, according to Manovich, because of the
Modularity Principle. Modularity is when a media object has “the same modular
structure throughout” (Manovich, pg 30). Each pin has a link. This is so anyone
who views the pin can click on the picture of the pin and will be immediately
directed to a new window with the link to the website where the pin came from.
It is very similar to hyperlinking on a blog, just in more user-friendly terms.
Click on the picture, and the website pops up. This is more evidence that
Pinterest can be considered a digital artifact, since it brings a lot of the
Internet together on one site where millions of users create pins, re-pin pins
and like pins, or links, in order to save them for later use.
The concept of variability
according to Manovich is also present in Pinterest as a form of a digital
artifact. Because each person is unique in this world, each user, or pinner, is
different. Therefore, the home page of Pinterest is always changing, with new
pins coming in on a live feed. Pinterest is a digital artifact with the support
of Manovich and his ideas of variability, or the idea that Pinterest “can exist
in different, potentially infinite versions” (Manovich, pg 36).
All in all, Pinterest is an easy, convenient
and very user-friendly digital media that connects people with similar
interests and ideas. I use it mainly for personal use, to discover, organize
and share my life all in one spot. Companies can use it for strategic
marketing. Others use it to connect with and follow people who have similar
interests as them. Overall, Pinterest is a unique form of new digital media
that has changed the way people communicate all over the world.
Bibliography
Falls, Jason. “How Pinterest is
Becoming the Next Big Thing in Social Media.” Entrprenuer.com. http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/222740
“Pinterest: Shifting Usage and
Demographics- Inforgraphic.” The Marketingbit.com http://www.themarketingbit.com/pinterest/pinterest-shifting-usage-and-demographics-infographic/
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