Pinterest

I was speaking to a friend last week and asking if and what they know about Pinterest. She kindly send me a couple of links that I will add at the bottom of this post. Since I have an aversion to Social Networking sites, I see them as complete time wasters, I thought maybe I should be more open minded to them and at least give this a look.

I don’t use Facebook and don’t need a billion “friends” that I will never meet or get to know and I don’t have a business as such that would be a way to add interest in what I do. I also don’t have a Twitter account. Why do I need to send quick updates about what I’m doing with my day or comment on news. On the plus side and to avoid sounding like a complete Debbie Downer, I will try and make this a pro and con post.

On the plus side, I do think if you’re in business the value of Social Networks have their place. You can make other contacts and people get to know about your products whether they are online or a real storefront. You can offer your sales and special offers to attract new and continued business and you can network with other business people to brain storm ideas to improves your sales. You can also stay connected with family and friends that don’t live nearby and that’s a good thing.

On the opposite side, I think Social Networks for personal use for the most part are a complete time waster. How many hours are spent reading mundane posts of things that have no real value. Why not pick up a phone and talk to people, converse with them, so much more personal and meaningful. There are games on there that I was shown,  but whatever happened to getting outside and doing things like, well I don’t know…how about getting some fresh air and exercise instead of hours on your fanny doing nothing productive.

So my Debbie Downer side is emerging. I think SN can be dangerous as well. A story I heard recently was about some school girls who had “friended” another girl on FB. Turns out the “other girl” was a police officer monitoring activity and we all know why. The girls were horrified to discover that their “new friend” was a police officer and could have been one of the nasties out there trolling for victims.

So where am I going with the title of the this post Pinterest. I went to the site to be open minded and willing to see what it is. The very first thing I saw was a picture of a dog (cute dog) and a comment below that read, “how did you get a picture of my dog”. AHA !!!!!   I exclaimed. I get it. But to not allow one post deter me, I thought okay, sign up and get a full view of what this is… Check out what the site is about, see what other things are on there and be optimistic.

Guess what and was I surprized……..NO!!!!. In case you don’t know, in order to be able to get an account…..and this is the ridiculous side and so confirms why I hate these things, you have to have a FACEBOOK account. Well, look at that. You have to sign up with one thing in order to sign up with another…. So I wrote back to them and said keep your sign up for someone else. If you feel the need to highjack me with a FB account before I can get a PINTEREST account, thanks but no thanks. So back to those links I mentioned.

If you are a business person, this link would interest you and be sure to click over to the other links featured for a full view of the legal side of things, which is just barely legal from what I can see.  Click here

If on a personal level you don’t understand what the site is and want to know how to properly use the site and give credit to those whose images you use, then go to this site and see how it’s done. Click here

So off to the garden I go and get that fresh air and exercise I mentioned. Have a wonderful day however you spend it…