“Pinterest is the world’s 15th most-used social platform in 2024, with over 518 million global active users,” according to Search Engine Journal, a journalist website providing users with the latest statistics on technology. Why is Pinterest what students gravitate towards?
As a platform designed to be a “visual discovery engine,” Pinterest emerges as a powerful resource for students to manifest their future. From digital vision boards to creating pins, the app allows users to gain inspiration and motivate them to work for their desired life.
“With individuals feeling a huge deal of loss of control over their own lives, with dreams and goals put on a stall for a year or so, social psychologists believe that individuals turned to ideation, creativity, and thereby, manifestation for that small push they needed in their lives” explained Medium, The Journalism of Human Stories and Ideas.
The student landscape is filled with academic and social pressures, other responsibilities, and outside-of-school commitments. This makes Pinterest an attractive tool for helping students envision their goals and provides them with an outlet to gain motivation. A personalized Pinterest board can keep students focused and inspired.
“It comes as no surprise then, that Pinterest, the Pin sharing app, has so far been the go-to app for Gen-Z to create their vision boards. Pinterest lets you pin (save) an image and create a board where you save all your images under that category” said Medium writer Artist01.
Users can create a variety of different types of boards under their profile. Common vision boards from the teenage perspective involve personal style, motivational quotes, dream houses, food, and even future events like upcoming birthdays. People can pick the pins they like through the homepage feed and place them into their chosen category. There is a social media aspect in which profiles can be personalized, and users can create their own pins. However, Pinterest does not hold the negative reputation of other social media apps like Instagram, TikTok, or Snapchat.
“On Pinterest, no one cares about how many followers you have. No one looks into who likes your photos because most users don’t post their own photos. No one is looking into who is following who, what you look like, etc…All of the toxic traits that happen within social media are non-existent on Pinterest,” said Lanthorn, The Grand Valley State University News writer, Maddie Zimmerman.
The art platform provides a unique space for students to express themselves and manifest their aspirations. Its lack of emphasis on followers, likes, and personal relationships separates it from other social media platforms, fostering a more positive environment, explains Senior Lexi Irani.
“I like Pinterest because I use it as inspiration for a lot of things. I get ideas for what nails I want to get or the clothes I wear,” said Irani.
Freshman Yasmina Saab agrees that Pinterest is beneficial and provides her with lots of inspiration.
“I think Pinterest is really creative. I like using it for inspo, and I use it whenever I need an idea for something, whether I am painting, drawing, clothes or even decorations for my room,” said Saab.
“I like Pinterest more than I like other social media apps because it’s more isolated and does not really consume other people’s opinions. Pinterest, you can kinda just enjoy at your own pace,” said Senior Sophia Kurciska.
