A Friday Night Slip-Up and the Pinterest Loophole

“A friday night inside meant boredom would hit hard… and, well, Pinterest was technically used for school.”

Thursday went well, it was a solid day with no hiccups and then Friday arrived. Friday challenged me in more ways than I could've expected. Up until that night I had kept myself busy with workouts, work, and spending time with family, so ultimately, the temptation to scroll through social media wasn’t much of an issue. But, the time came where I had finished all my schoolwork, cleaned up a bit, and I was just stuck sitting there. Suddenly that itch to scroll through social media came. Social media is something that I use to stimulate my mind, and provide some sort of mental escape, sometimes in fear of overthinking. However, I don’t post at all on any of my social media accounts unless I'm posting random things on my spam, but that’s very few and far apart. Posting is something I’ve never been a big fan of because I'm very private and feel absolutely no need to try and impress anybody. So, in quiet moments like these I usually scroll away, but the urge was successfully resisted.

At that point I had just decided to put music on and get ahead on some work for a design class of mine. Then, Pinterest came into the picture. It’s a main source of design inspiration that I often utilize, so if that counts as another hiccup then so be it. However, one thing led to another, and I began to subconsciously scroll through things completely off topic! At that point I realized that Pinterest had sucked me into that same wormhole that Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter often do. 

However, I’m not at all addicted to social media. In fact, life wouldn’t be much different without it. I'd probably just be a bit more productive, get a lot more sleep during the day or night, and find some other means of entertainment. I’d like to think that I would fill that time in by playing more basketball, but it’s also plausible that I’d be more outgoing like my mom and dad. Regardless, my life would be much easier because I wouldn't spend my time worrying about buying the new shoes that are coming out on November 26th or becoming suddenly inclined to get new tattoos based on the various art inspirations that come across my page. I do think social issues have affected us all due to social media. For example, when we sit down at our class tables we naturally go straight to scrolling rather than speaking to those around us, seeing how each other are doing, and getting information straight from the source. Instead we’ll just acquire the information that we need my scanning each other’s stories and recent to posts to see things like what everyone did over the weekend. It has destroyed the true strength that personal relationships once had, and ultimately, led to the falling out of many of these personal relationships. 

With this being said, this whole experience is kind of making me reflect and rethink some things. It can come so naturally to just look on Pinterest for inspiration, but as said before, there is a very fine line between subconsciously scrolling and intentionally searching for inspiration. Social media has given us a great tool for inspiration, but it can lead me to lose that creative thinking that is so imperative to the meaning behind my work. So, some way or another I’m going to have to find a balance between utilizing these platforms to fill my mental lapses, all the while, still pulling from my own creative mind.