Stop right there! YOU! Yes, you. Delete those mood boards!!!!
I know, I know. Abrasive, abrupt. Who am I to tell you what to do. Right? I get it.
Just hear me out with this one. I was scrolling through my Pinterest page and my saved and private boards, I was trying to find some writing prompts to really get those juices flowing and I kept seeing the same pins saved. The same questions and ideas. ’20 Prompts to Find Your Inner Child’, ‘Journal Prompts to Get to Know Yourself’. So many things saved, and forgotten. I had intended to use them, to reference them, I had made my mood boards to motivate me towards my dreams and aspirations but never really looked through them.
It hit me today, They are really just a crutch, just there to fein progress and inspiration. They serve a superficial purpose and spending any time putting them together is time wasted. When I can be putting the work in myself.
Assuming these things were going to fix me was holding me back. Or, at least not propelling me forward. Let’s be honest, if my Pinterest Boards were holding me back then that would simply be a serious skill issue. I realized though, saving these posts, these pictures, they were only a comparison and it was me living vicariously through Pinterest.
Now, obviously, or maybe not if you do not have media literacy, everything needs to be taken with a grain of salt. What I think, can’t and won’t apply to everyone. Some people love their Pinterest boards and do use them. (Yippee for you!) But I found for me personally, I was spending all this time saving pins, creating this idealized version of myself on the internet through boards that were private. I was creating a version of myself that would not exist outside of my Pinterest. Why am I unhappy? Why are my goals and ambitions not being realized? Because that effort. is being put into and realized through my boards.
It’s like a weird pseudo-reality, it makes you feel like you have accomplished something, when in reality all you have curated is an idea. It’s a strange dynamic. You want to visualize, you want to believe that these boards mean something or that they will help you accomplish something when the truth is they could be the exact thing holding you back.
From what I have seen and read, your brain has a difficult time deciphering real information from false information. Talking badly about yourself, imagining yourself accomplishing something spectacular, imagining all these terrible scenarios happening to you, your brain will likely not know what is real and not. So why is it so hard to believe that using these boards, getting that dopamine rush from creating an aesthetically pleasing board, and satisfying that need to DO something won’t do the exact same thing?
I argue that it does. Now, don’t get me wrong. I still have and use Pinterest, I save inspiration, have boards for future use, but I try not to spend all my time trying to live a life through those boards. You might think to yourself, ‘well who the f%^k does that?” ME. OBVIOUSLY. I doubt I’m alone. Pinterest is hugely successful and is continuously venturing out to new avenues. I can see its success growing as it does, and reaching new audiences.
I would implore people to not use it as a crutch, however. You have SO much life to live, and you can only experience so much through your phone. And this applies to other things as well, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook (am I missing anything else? LOL I never know), they only show glimpses into people’s lives and can make people feel unfulfilled, dissatisfied, and unhappy. There is much more than meets the eye.
I am not innocent, I spend too much time on my phone, so maybe this is strictly a call out to myself. Whatever. It’s something I am working on, I swear.
It is so important to remember to live your life. And something I forget. Like a lot. Here I am waiting for my job to officially start and I have barely left my house except to go to the gym and the store. Yes, I am becoming more socially anxious, and yes I am working on it.
During this time, I am trying to be more aware of the pitfalls that await longing and comparison. All this free time and boredom. Keeping myself in check. It is good to do so.
Now, if you don’t mind me I will now edit and create a Pinterest pin or two to post this on Pinterest. Perhaps a little hypocritical, but hey. All the best main characters are a little flawed.
