My growing Pinterest addiction

Over the past few months, I’ve seen growing numbers of references to Pinterest online. It turns out it’s not a site you can sign up for directly…in a move guaranteed to promote a sense of exclusivity, and to tease my curiosity, the only way you can get yourself a Pinterest account is to be invited from someone who already has an account, or to request an invite.

I requested an invite, and then promptly forgot all about it again until one day a little while later, when an email arrived in my inbox telling me I got in! So of course, I logged straight in and couldn’t figure out what all the fuss was about. Lots and lots of pictures. And the ability to “pin” those pictures to Boards. I guess it’s a little bit like digital scrapbooking, but with a social integration aspect.

Pinterest starts to come alive when you find people to follow who pin things that you like. (And people can follow you back in turn.) So far, I’m following a few friends, and bloggers who blog about things that I like – arts and crafts for kids, beautiful places to visit, delicious recipes, anything at all really.

And then whenever I have a few minutes to kill, I just browse the pictures. When I spot something I like, I can pin it to my own board to save it, or I can like it and post about it to Twitter or Facebook to share it with my friends there, or I can open up the image, and through it browse to the site it originated on. It turns out this is a great way to find interesting blog posts. I’m especially loving it for recipes and children’s activities.

Occasionally, I browse Pinterest on my laptop, but mostly, I browse it using the iPad or iPhone apps. I especially like the iPhone app for killing a few minutes waiting for something. Only problem is that sometimes, I lose more than just a few minutes on it! If any of you are on Pinterest already, you can find me at Mamadotie.

A few of the lovely pictures I've pinned!