Pinterest.
This Baby:
http://pinterest.com/
It's a massive hit with a great number of people I know - but the fascinating kicker (at least for me) is that Pinterest only seems to capture the attention of females in my life.
Honestly. Of the people I've heard talking about Pinterest - in person, on facebook, on blogs - ZERO of them have been men. If you checked out the link (or have been to the site otherwise) it's quite clear that Pinterest is very gendered in terms of content, but it strikes me that it doesn't have to be that way, and it baffles me how polarizing this one is.
Pinterest is essentially a photo blog - not unlike tumblr, or a very image-heavy wordpress layout. A user creates categories, and then either 'pins' content uploaded from their computer, or re-pins things that others have already put up. All of this is pretty normal, and there's no face reason why I shouldn't be interested. In fact, take a look at this photo:
This Baby:
http://pinterest.com/
It's a massive hit with a great number of people I know - but the fascinating kicker (at least for me) is that Pinterest only seems to capture the attention of females in my life.
Honestly. Of the people I've heard talking about Pinterest - in person, on facebook, on blogs - ZERO of them have been men. If you checked out the link (or have been to the site otherwise) it's quite clear that Pinterest is very gendered in terms of content, but it strikes me that it doesn't have to be that way, and it baffles me how polarizing this one is.
Pinterest is essentially a photo blog - not unlike tumblr, or a very image-heavy wordpress layout. A user creates categories, and then either 'pins' content uploaded from their computer, or re-pins things that others have already put up. All of this is pretty normal, and there's no face reason why I shouldn't be interested. In fact, take a look at this photo:
Architecture? Motorcycles? Music, Film, and something called Geek? By name alone, I'm interested in half of stuff on that list. I'm a very visual person. I love design, art, and cool photos. I should be stoked on Pinterest. But here's the thing:
I don't care. At all.
Pinterest has absolutely zero appeal for me, and every guy I've talked to feels the same way. Men are supposedly visual creatures, and this is an image blog with lots of potential for cool things guys would like. So honestly, I'm putting this out there to people: Why is Pinterest so captivating to women, and so utterly 'meh' to the large majority of men? I have no doubt that some guys like Pinterest, but I feel confident that my sample isn't entirely unrepresentative.
Here's one theory perhaps, courtesy of my girlfriend. Perhaps it's the very organizational nature of Pinterest that creates this divide. I love the chaos of tumblr. I love the weird, stream of consciousness, mental bleed that are the tumblrs of most people. The quotes, the mini-tweet-like-statements and the self photography. I eat it all up, because it feels like a snapshot of the inside of someones skull. When it's bad, it's really bad. But when it's good, it feels like an experience unique to the internet, and a totally wonderful one at that. I know plenty of girls with great tumblrs, so this isn't to suggest that women don't respond to tumblr, but maybe that the hyper-organized system of Pinterest taps into something that girls respond to way more than guys.
What gives, friendly folk?
|
Labels:
Gender Roles,
Online Trends
|
|
0 comments:
Post a Comment