When I first found out about Pinterest, I thought it was a wonderful idea. How many times have I seen something online, only to have no way to find it again when I want to? Now, what WAS that web address? Pinterest allows users to put all those things neatly in one place where it's easy to retrieve when we're ready to use it or (let's be honest) just remember it at all. That's all well and good. The problem, at least for me, is that now all that internet wonderfulness is in one place where it's easy to retrieve. TOO easy to retrieve . . . and catergorized. Lord, help me! I find myself obsessively scanning recipes, just in case the best one in the universe ever has appeared since the last time I looked . . . twelve minutes ago. And the do-it-yourself stuff? I think I've convinced myself that I'm a DIYer just by pinning the ideas and reading the tutorials. I do have a Pinterest board entitled "Things I've pinned that I've actually cooked/made/worn/done," and I have quite few things pinned there, but c'mon. The truth is that Pinterest hasn't made me a better cook, parent, or wife. It hasn't made me more crafty or frugal. And it definitely hasn't made me skinnier.
Pinterest has made me . . . an addict. Hello. My name is Heather, and I'm a Pinterest junkie.
And if I'm to be brutally honest (more honest than I'd like to be), Pinterest has, at times, contributed to a subtle feeling of discontentment, because there's just so much out there that's beautiful and exquisite and fine . . . and completely out of my reach anywhere other than on Pinterest. Obviously I'm not talking about cookie recipies and things made with Mod Podge. But those "Home Decor" and "Travel" categories can suck me into a world where all the homes feature gourmet kitchens and poolside fireplaces and winding mahogany staircases and the people who live in them vacation at elite resorts in Bali and Greece. Oh, and they have unbelievable wardrobes that they wear on their perfect bodies. This is the world where that feeling of discontentment, left unchecked, can be dangerous, because it's based in fantasy and makes me temporarily forget all the ways my life is fabulous, just the way it is. My home is fabulous. I've vacationed in some pretty fabulous places. Most importantly, my family is fabulous. It's all SO GOOD.
Still, it's amazing how quickly I can forget that.
So recognizing this little addiction is a good thing, and the challenge is keeping everything in perspective enough to actually enjoy the true benefits of Pinterest, because there are some. The only other alternative is to go cold turkey, and that would be . . . well . . . let's just make sure it never comes to that. After all, if it hadn't been for Pinterest, I may never have discovered oven-cooked bacon, and I'm pretty sure that's going to revolutionize my whole life.
P.S. Want to know a funny irony? When I sat down to write this post, it was going to be all about the experimenting I did yesterday with a few recipes I found . . . on Pinterest.
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