I recently expressed my confusion concerning the popularity of Pinterest. It seems as though everyone who blogs, tweets, or uses any other form of social media has used it, and they love it. Finally, with a couple minutes to spare before work the other day, I checked out. I was overwhelmed by the home page that opened up. What was I supposed to do with that mess of images??
The next day, a co-worker (and facebook friend) posted something to facebook about something she pinned or something she and her daughter made after finding it on Pinterest. I commented that I liked the heart-shaped crayons they made, but didn't understand the appeal of Pinterest. Yesterday she came up to me and said, 'You don't use Pinterest!? I'd have thought it was right up your alley!' After a short conversation she suggested I give it another go, and recommended I try the 'DIY & Crafts' tab.
This morning, I did. At this point I had it in my head that I would fall in love with it, and spend all day looking and pinning. After about 10 minutes of sensory overload and a still confused voice in my head questioning the purpose of Pinterest, I hopped over to the 'About' page.
And there I got my answer!
The question: why am I not in love with this thing that everyone around me is so into, and worse yet, something that my friends think is 'right up my alley'!? What am I missing?It hit me like a ton of bricks...I am not that person who scours the internet looking for images and 'things'. Oh, how I would love to be, but I am not. Obviously, as you can see by my blog, I don't tend to be image heavy. I wish that I was, but if it's time or effort holding me back, I don't know... they just don't make it into my internet world.
It kind of made me sad, too. I took a correspondence course in photography the year after getting booted out of university. I was 19 and didn't know what else to do. (And, it was all through the mail!! The 'ooh, look what else we offer' draw was that you could use your PHONE -land line, of course, no cells back then!- to call in your test answers or speak with a professor!)
I wasn't great by the end...my 'final' was a 3-part hands-on photo session of sorts where you mailed in your photos for critique. I still have my 'wildlife' entry: a picture of my cat sitting in a field of tall grass and little purple flowers. As the years went on, I experimented with my camera and took some pretty cool artsy photos. I grew a lot, and took, what I believe to be some really great photos.
But, alas, I am not a digital girl. Since giving up my film camera efforts, I have fallen out of love with photography. Taking photos...not viewing.
Who cares? Well, probably no one, but I think it is part of the reason I tend not to post pics...they are not good examples of my skills. Or, the skills I once had, anyway.
So, back to Pinterest. To me, it's just a jumbled mess of too much stuff to sort through, for a person with no patience for that sort of thing. If I'm gonna spend hours sorting through photographs, I want to touch them...have them in my hands. I'm old fashioned. I want to break out of this moldy oldy rut, but I think it may be too late for that.
But, I also think I'm okay with it.
I'm certainly not saying that people who love Pinterest are just sitting around all day looking at pictures! I know all too well about finding a site you love and spending hours, without even realizing, just lost in it all. But, for me, Pinterest isn't that site. For now, I'm sure someone, some other day, will convince me to try again. Or, maybe some day I will simply have more time to sort through it all?!
Moving on...
My giveaway is turning out to be a bust, but that's okay. I have come to realize that I don't have the time to promote and 'virtually' socialize on a scale that will really make a difference in my online presence. Again, that's okay, it's just how it is. Until I have more time, I will just continue to putter along as best I can.But it's still gonna happen...the giveaway, I mean. Here's a link to the original post, and I amended the time frame so that you may enter up through Thursday; and, the winner will be announced in a post Friday.
Here's a quick recap of rules, if you don't want to go back in time to read them:
1. Check out my Facebook Fan Page
and ‘Like’ me. You can also access it by clicking the 'MyDearest' box at the top right side of this page. Let me know in your comment here.2. Follow my blog, and let me know in a comment here.
3. Do you have friends who may be interested in my shop? why not blog about this giveaway, and add a link (and let me know in a comment here)!
4. Do you tweet? ‘Follow’ me. Tweet me something…it’ll be fun!
OH, and the prize, again, will be a quilled snowflake and a cotton bag with one of my original designs (ironed on). It's a play on this crazy late summer-like weather we are having this winter! It's February 1st and I can go outside without a coat!! In New England!!
Now, all of this is to (gulp!) promote my Etsy shop that I've recently re-opened with a new line of paper jewelry,and some new hardcover journals. So, if you are so inclined, you may also want to go there, too.
Perhaps my next post will just be pictures!?
It was too jumbled for me,too. And I'm the kind of person who will sit for a day (literally) just going through pictures and links. All day. But, I also share in your love of having the actual photo in hand. (Why else would I have four, unopened photo albums at the ready?) I plan on taking a film camera with me to all of my special explorations and trips this year. Will probably be a disposable, since I don't know how to work the real thing, but I'll have pictures that I won't need to turn on a computer to look at again. Sorry your giveaway isn't what you'd hoped. :/ I still adore your work and get so excited to see what you come up with!
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't stress about the giveaway. You Do have to take time and religiously promote such a site and therefore there will be people there to, well, give away to! I see thousands of give aways all the time, but you need to have a place people want to come and know you or your product. That takes time. You can't really just take a few days one month and think, bam, now its a site full of people. Not to be hard, but that's just the reality. It takes time. Post more regularly. Talk about topics you like and share your work as it progresses. Worry less about what sells and more about what makes you happy. Then you will have people liking it too then they will most likely buy it.
ReplyDeleteSo, unless you hate online completely, I think you just need to stick with it. Give yourself a goal of a year, that's realistic. To say, by the end of the year I expect to have blogged and developed my lil place here into something of interest. So many people just do it randomly and then wonder why its not working. So, my advice is give yourself a realistic goal of a year. Work at it when you have your spare time in each day and then if its right for you, you will want to keep going.I mean you will still have to spend this next year anyway, right, why not add that to it and see what happens? So, that's my advice, for what its worth. Oh and also you could love photography again I think if you learned some basics on say photoshop or some such. Post photoshop can even fix lighting issues, so there's another think on your year list to work towards. Why give up when you can just learn and go forward?
well, i certainly don't expect anything online to happen overnight! Especially since i'm so aware of how saturated the internet is! I keep saying i'm gonna give up, but i get pulled back in, so there must be some sort of sick love in me, for it.
ReplyDeleteI'll just have to face facts that now i have 3 jobs. good thing i got all of my socializing out of the way at the end of last year! (I'm joking...sort of)
Hey, you do what you have to do. But, you're right you may have the draw and desire and not having the knowledge, yet, makes it feel frustrating. But, with the drive comes knowledge. You'll get there. And we know how hard working you are, you apply that to this aspect and you will amaze yourself! Good luck and keep at it. And, joking aside, we all know how important this is to you. We can keep up with occasional phone calls, you focus on your skills first, we'll understand. As they say, 'you go girl'!
ReplyDeleteYou know, for about a year I didn't get it at all. I thought the same way - what is all of this? Why is the same picture on here over and over? I didn't get it. Then, one random day, I went over (again) and I just magically GOT it! It was weird. Now I LOVE it! I LOVE it!! So, what I am saying is - there is still hope for you. HEEEEEE-- only kidding. If you don't like it, you don't like it. I still like you though :D
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