Sunday, November 30, 2014

Where is the path to Wonderland

Welp, it's finally happened. I've taken the plunge. Fallen down the rabbit hole.

I've joined Pinterest, and you can follow me by clicking on that link.

I've certainly liked the idea of Pinterest for as long as I've known about it, but I've known for that same amount of time that it was the perfect opportunity for a time-sucking rabbit hole. One could get lost there for hours. I already knew that I could get lost in recipe or crafting blogs without Pinterest, so I decided it was best I just stay away from having an account.

That doesn't mean I stayed away from it entirely. I looked at it sometimes to see what friends had pinned or to gather ideas. Once I started my current job, I discovered it was useful for ideas and lesson plans for the library. I would go months without looking at it and I didn't feel like I was missing anything. 

Then I got called to the nursery.  I started looking to the internet for ideas and a lot of them took me to Pinterest. I quickly realized that I couldn't look at pins without an account anymore, as they had apparently locked down the site to non-pinners. I began some occasional deliberation. Eilonwy sweetened the deal by telling me she had already created a panda board for me. 

After a month of pondering, I was looking online for ideas about teaching MLA citation to sixth graders and I could no longer deny that having a Pinterest account would be useful. I think knowing of its rabbit hole possibilities going in will help use it responsibly. I didn't even create a board or stat pinning until today, though I actually signed up on Tuesday. I'll likely limit myself to follow only people I already know in person or other internet forums and possibly set time limits on my browsing as well. I've been using Evernote to curate my recipe, crafting, and other inspirations, so I'll probably use a combination of both going forward.

Do you pin? How do you use it? How do you manage your time?  I'll take all the suggestions I can get!

4 comments:

abby said...

I look at Pinterest as a bookmarking and organizational tool. I don't use it as a dream board and I think that prevents it from being too addicting.

Giggles said...

I'm with Abby. I use it for bookmarking and organization stuff, not dreaming.

And I'm very selective in who I follow and which of their boards I follow too.

AmandaStretch said...

I think that's a really good idea - more organization, less dream. Thanks!

Heidi said...

I use it to keep track of interesting or pretty things I find that I want to remember. I have craft and sewing and costume history boards, and a few boards just for dreaming. :) I'm not on there a lot lately, and when I am, I tend to unfollow some accounts. I'm trying to declutter.