Pinterest is a blackhole time suck. Now I have to go pin more recipes that I will never have time to make.

I think it activates the same happy place in the brain that playing with cut-out paper dolls and scrapbooking taps - somewhere between real world and ideal world.

I had my own method for pulling & holding ideas before Pinterest and, even after the advent of Pinterest (tried it, won't use it myself, occasionally search for a term seeing what caught others eyes), one of my most satisfying moments so far this year was tossing out all those files (paper & digital). Freedom from the 'Someday' mentality!

I was on pinterest for a while and deleted it. I haven't missed it one day since. It gets repetitive pretty fast and it's impossible to avoid all the disgruntled housewifes. shudder.

I signed up early on and still pin when I come across something on another site or blog that I'd like to revisit later, but I don't go to Pinterest looking for inspiration like I used to. I feel like there was more quality in the earlier days, now its large quantities of mostly junk. If I see one more ridiculous inspirational quote or "thinspiration" photo...

Agreed: Tired of seeing all the "god loves you" quotes and "thinspiration".

I love Pinterest because it does for me what bookmarks are supposed to do -- ie: it used to be that I'd bookmark something and then totally forget about it. Since I'm a visual person, and because I like to check out Pinterest regularly for inspiration, I find that I actually go back to the things I pinned, like recipes. This makes my life so much easier! Also, I seem to be following people with great taste -- I agree that the inspirational quotes would be annoying. But I do love seeing the beautiful things that I wouldn't find on my own.

I really don't get the allure of Pinterest.

I still really enjoy pinterest, but I avoid ever going to any of the categories or clicking the "everything" tab. The best way to guarentee you're only going to see awesome stuff is to find people who only pin awesome stuff. Then follow them. And if someone you follow starts pinning stupid crap, unfollow that board or that person. I'm still seeing amazing, beautiful new things every time I'm on Pinterest because I follow some amazing people. Everyone has different tastes, but if you want to see who I follow, check out my page and click on the "Following" link under my name. http://pinterest.com/StressedJess/

Pinterest transforms your visual bits and pieces into a cohesive sense of personal style - this is definitely one of its attractions.
And the only way to sift through all the Pinterest flotsam is to follow people with great taste, or a design style that appeals to you.
The serial Etsy pinners can be annoying.....

I agree with JMill and don't use the Everything tab. My friends post great stuff, and I'll occasionally do specific searches. Mostly, though, I used it to get all my inspiration in one place, for instance bridesmaids dresses, wedding bouquets, or paint colors for my home.

I agree with JMILL9584 - Pinterest is great, but requires a little bit of effort to "follow" and "unfollow" the right folks to get to the good stuff! It's also nice to get an overview of what your style is - looking back at what you're pinning can be pretty revealing. Sadly, I've noticed more and more companies joining - get ready for endless product pushing.

TOTALLY agree with you, Joy. I actually do use the recipes I find (maybe because I'm a cooking newbie), I do pull up Pinterest on my phone to refer to when I make buying decisions (whether it be for a new dress or a new lamp), I used to have SO many bookmarks, and now I've got a clean little bar of frequented sites, instead of a lot of "cute basket" or "elegant dishtowel." On Pinterest, I created my first wedding board, which cost a total of $0 to make. I can go over it every couple of weeks to see if there's anything I've changed my mind on, or to delete things I've since pinned a less expensive, more personalized way of creating. I used to check out the "everything" tab, and when I first joined it was still pretty quality & gave my boards an excellent start. Now I only check out specific categories when I'm bored and have nothing else to do. My routine is to pin all of my Bloglovin Likes every Friday (which I just finished doing). Next week I'm trying out a goal list format for my household that I found on craftgawker: http://pinterest.com/pin/165929567490805548. I agree with JMILL9584 about following certain people, but I've only found one board that I like consistently enough to follow. The only downside is that there are no privacy options (for obvious reasons), and that it's becoming polluted in the same way all other social media sites have gone. Meh. I still love it and I'll never go back. http://pinterest.com/fauxfaux

Forgot to add, I don't have a book/movie board since I use LibraryThing and icheckmovies for those. It's essentially a Pinterest for books and movies, though icheck's layout isn't similar. Pinterest works best if you pin with intention and then follow-up with budgeting time/money accordingly. It'd be unfair to blame Pinterest for all those things you'll never make/buy/see, since it's YOUR choice whether you'll commit to them.

I'm with @JOY | FROCK FILES on this one. Most of my pins are basically bookmarks with a visual reminder of where they came from.

As a sometimes-designer, I also use boards as image morgues around a particular project. Pre-pinterest, I either would have stashed images in a Word document for this or cut them out of magazines and pinned them to a physical board.

I repin very little from my fellow pinners.

I tried and found it pointless.

i used to email myself links in gmail with a label on them (just like pin boards)... i guess it was a step between ACTUAL pin boards and pinterest. my email is SO much less cluttered now, and i can see the picture with a great visual reminder!

i rarely use it to see what others have posted, and mostly look back at my own. the "pin it" button is my best friend these days!

(so easy since googling something posted on AT that you remember seeing ages ago is SO hard!!! and never brings up what i want anyways)

Hmmm, I just checked it out for the first time and asked for an invite...but I'm not sure how much I would use it. I found it to be very overwhelming after checking it out for only 15 minutes. I think it's great to share and get ideas, but sometimes too much stuff can clutter my own creativity.

I'm so lazy when it comes to sites like this. I just can't make myself take the time to learn (the easy part) and then habitually use (the hard part) things like Pintrest, Twitter, Facebook's new timeline, any Facebook app for that matter, Spotify...

Come to think of it, I hope we're reaching a critical mass where the overwhelming amount of (crappy) crowd-generated content heralds a resurgence of paying professionals to put together better content. Not that the former will ever go away (nor should it, it has its place), but doesn't there have to come a point when a person realizes that no one is following them and that they're Pinning, Tweeting, etc. to the void?

i love pinterest. it makes me sad to see some people blogging less because of it, but i personally see it as a partnership between blogging + inspiration. and its faster...it takes no time to pin a pin. its helped me to define my design style and follow design trends. http://pinterest.com/julia_f/

ps when i was looking for paint swatches at the store, i was able to pull up my "wallpaper and paint" pinboard to stay on track with the colors i was looking for. love it

could be fun, but I don't prefer to have yet more personal data collected and sold, which I assume is how the site funds itself.

The site has mostly been valuable to me as a springboard to other things, which tracks with this finding. See a cool recipe, go to the site, see if it's worth following. Same with home design. It's also great for me to figure out from my own history what kinds of things I'm drawn to. It may not be so obvious without the visual reminder. While I may have no interest in the vast majority of pins nowadays, it's still useful for me, screw the void.

@JULIAF: Well, that might change, I think Pinterest just instituted a 500 character limit per pin. Like Twitter, I don't think it'd change anything in regards to legit blog content. I mean, especially considering the new limit, you can't review a movie on Pinterest, or tell a funny story about something that happened to you on the weekend. Even Lifehacker, who I pin frequently, includes pics in their posts (and thank the baby Jesus for that), but there'd be no substitute if you tried to pin one of their longer tutorials. Twitter didn't take the place of blogs, it just simplified what needed simplifying. (I used to use Twitter as an all-around Pinterest, now I have private accounts for those sorts of things, and Twitter is my public movie/book/link-lover.)

I can't fault those who tried it and didn't like it. Pinterest is for people who have a tangible need for the service or the style. Some people prefer the plain letters of the bookmark list, and some people just aren't the type to save images of bacon-wrapped potatoes or Sailor Moon floatie rings for later reference.

I use it in place of bookmarks or emailing myself links. It is a much easier way to organzie my interior design images. I don't ever search through pinterest and I unlinked it to facebook and don't even have my real name on it. The only other person who looks at my pins is my husband. If we are selecting something for the house it is an easy way to share our ideas.

I love gathering inspiration from friends but they need to figure out their iPad interface before I give them any real love!

For a frustrated renter still dreaming of the day I can set up my 'dream home' it definitely has a powerful allure.

I have just found a select group of people who have taste I like and follow them (or just the few boards they have that interest me) and I really enjoy it. I definitely avoid looking at 'Everything' unless I have time to waste. I also use it as an online pinboard for my own files which might previously have sat in a folder on my computer called 'Dream Home' or similar, or just been bookmarked in my browser.

It has a few glitches, but I like it :)

JMILL9584 - Just found you on Pinterest and you have such AWESOME stuff! I hope you don't get notification emails because I am about to blow up your inbox!

rosekraft is right. it lets you see everything in one place so you can figure out a project. you could dothe same with a folder on your computer, but this is a bit quicker than drag 'n drop.

i'm addicted and love it. i signed up when it first started. i tried to get my mom to sign up too but she just told me you now need a facebook or twitter account to be a "member." LAME. they'd be smart to drop that. they're going to loose out on a lot of people that don't want to join the social networks.

Pinning is kind of fun. Looking at what's going on in other people's minds is SUPER fun. I had no idea that J wanted such a frilly, feminine wedding! I knew B was intense, but not THAT intense! I'm glad E is as amused by bad puns and lolcats as I am. It's like stalking someone's brain.

Looked at it, couldn't join it because I'm not on Facebook. (I tend to refuse to follow crowds). I would have liked to use it as a way to "bookmark", I think.