Pinterest - Pinning towards Dystopia - At What Point Does "Picked For You" or "Found In" Homogenize Thinking and Kill Creativity?

Do you use Pinterest? I do, I access it from my phone once or twice a day. I scroll to get Paleo ideas and I follow “Boards” where others have “pinned” artists and topics that appeal to me. Sometimes, I click on the "everything" feed of pins where I get a peek into what I think are all other users pinned interests.... it's a cultural arts study. Actually, this is where the black hole of time begins for me.... Who knew that people were making home offices out of sheds with sliding doors? I saw an etched moonshine bottle being used to hold corks people signed instead of a guest book at a wedding… it gave me an idea (completely different) about something we could do at an upcoming event at a winery for hospital executives. 

Last year, my friend invited me to participate in a private board to plan a wedding shower. Since it took a village spread across the country to plan it, the board offered a useful idea repository for food, centerpieces, invitations, games and place cards. I showed it to another friend who helped me find the centerpiece supplies – a picture was worth a thousand words – I’d still be trying to explain it.  I’m pleased too that I haven't seen much porn or inappropriate postings. Pinterest isn't Craigslist.

Pinterest is more like an Amazon or Google for visuals. Over the last few months, it’s evolved to be more sophisticated in its ability to select and push items under a heading "Picked for You". It’s apparent that behind the scenes they have built algorithms to make automated selections of things in themes I like. And, I’d say at least 85% of the time they are right.

If Pinterest was a man, I’d buy him.

This is amazing, annoying and distressing.  I get a rush of finding the stuff I like. I use Pinterest to get ideas not to have them fed to me. I liked the chaos of art, food, crafts barging in with different ideas, angles, media. Now however, someone who wrote a program is sending me things to discover. They are no longer my discoveries.

You know all the sci-fi dystopian futures that fill the shelves book lists on Barnes and Noble?  This feels like the early phase of innovation of non democracy. Most companies with a web presence are using a light version of this under the egis of automated marketing software with names such as Pardot, Marketo, HubSpot. The programs score levels of a prospective buyer’s interest in a product by how many actions that take to know more. Browsed the webpage- 1 point, clicked on a section- 2 points, spent 22 seconds on it -3 points. Bingo, they hit 6 points send them an article. They clicked on it- Ding! Ding! Ding! It’s the bobber with a bell announcing we have a live one on the line.

It appears that in the last few months Pinterest's pushes have increased. Now I am seeing "Found In" in my feeds. I have found instructions on Google to get rid of "Picked for You" but not "Found In." I'm guessing it's new and someone will post the anti-Foundin, and Pinterest will create another algorithm and so it will go. 

At this point, Amazon, we basically ignore, it’s so much apart of our shopping process. Google, I used twice in writing this and it offered up exactly the word (dystopia) I wanted. Since I search about writing frequently, what I wanted topped the list. Pinterest is just one more program/service going down the same path. The thing is, I am really afraid that in the wrong hands, offerings chosen for me may have a bias from the owner.

Do the Koch’s or Fox news have a piece of Pinterest? Not that I particularly want to see it, but who made the decision that we don’t see porn? Should I be worried, should we all be worried about who is writing the algorithms and homogenizing our thinking?

Oh, and I probably wouldn't buy the man. I'd expect him  and his cows for free.