Ryan's Writings…at Mason

Around January, one of my friends invited me to join Pinterest.com. I had no idea what “pinning” was and I had no earthly idea how addictive this news social media site could be.

My first day using Pinterest, I wasted 3 hours of my life just pinning items to my boards.

I’m not kidding. Three hours, non-stop.

So far, I have just used Pinterest for personal reasons: finding my future wedding dress, home decor ideas, DIY projects, recipes — you get the picture.

I really wish I could say that I have my own public Pinterest (one that I want future employers to see and to use for networking) and then a separate personal Pinterest, but as of now, Pinterest is just an idea generator for me.

There are so many really ingenious ideas that people pin on Pinterest, and they help serve as inspiration for my own projects, whether they are finding a use for all of the empty Mason jars I’ve accumulated to re-purposing my wardrobe into an office nook.

But I do realize that there’s a bigger purpose for Pinterest.

It allows people to share ideas and projects like never before. It has become the new “it” spot for advertising, and many have found the usefulness of Twitter in making their own art, writing or even home business known by more people than they could have ever imagined.

Pinterest has taken sharing to a level we have never seen before, and though I admit I am not using the site in the most productive manner, I understand its potential usefulness to my future career as a journalist.

Could you imagine being able to instantly share all of your stories and articles with every single Pinterest user? That’s millions, possibly even billions of people!

That’s a much bigger deal than only sharing them with your couple hundred Facebook friends and Twitter followers. And that’s way bigger than posting them on your blog (something that is difficult for the masses to notice — unless you’re a celebrity, of course).

But for now, I am very content with using Pinterest to plan my future wedding and dream home.

Oh, and all of the recipes I won’t have the time to cook because I’m too busy pinning my free time away.

Be sure to check out some of my pins!