Reflective rant about Pinterest

I find Pinterest so compelling - I can lose (literally) days just looking at images there. 

But...  as well as being a fantastic resource, Pinterest really does have the capacity to make me completely lose heart (and a lot of Time!) if I let it and I do wonder if it is really good for me.  I end up having been so immersed in other people's ideas and images that it becomes increasingly difficult to develop ideas of my own without being directly or subliminally influenced by those thousands of 'pins' I've been browsing over the past few months!  This is (sort of!) normal, I know - all art is influenced by other art... or by nature... or other man-made objects...  but Pinterest is just so incredibly dense in quantity and quality of images that I find it does overwhelm my own creative spirit at times.  In equal measure I feel inspired, envious, excited, motivated, demotivated, shocked, delighted... (I could go on and on)... by Pinterest.  But mostly the word 'overwhelmed' describes the common theme.  Pinterest is like the collective creativity of the Universe all squeezed into one small place  :-)   Brilliant, yes. 

One of the aspects of Pinterest that keeps me coming back despite its 'overwhelming' nature is its ability to keep logical order throughout the vast number of items it holds in its database(s).  The theme boards work so well.  The other annoying/wonderful thing about Pinterest is that it is really good at knowing what I will like.  I don't know how its back-end algorithms and search engines do their thing, but they are exceptionally good at matching me with images that I find appealing.

I have had to stop Pinterest from sending me push notifications or emails because I always find these interesting and they constantly divert from me what I should be doing.  To reinforce this diversion, Pinterest also tells me over and over again that what I should be doing is completely pointless because every single idea I have ever had is already beautifully executed by someone else, perfectly photographed and placed within its database somewhere.  And the rest.

So, whilst being completely addicted, I am (almost) resigned to never looking at Pinterest again... ever!!  In reality though, I will try and limit my Pinterestation to shortish, infrequent bursts and hope that in a few months I can add some of my own original ideas into its wondrous visual mix.