“Pinterest: Inspiration or Manipulation?” (2021-2022)

When I presented my first draft to my professor, he pointed out that there was nothing unique about the argument that I was bringing up. I had put together a six-page draft about what art theft across social media platforms was and what the artists’ reactions were. However, I was not giving the audience a reason to care about this issue in the first place. To put it simply, I was merely regurgitating an observation without any critical analysis. My professor then pointed me towards parts of my essay that I could explore more like a quote I brought up by Ben Silbermann: “I’d always thought that the things you collect say so much about who you are.” 

Heeding his advice, I started researching more about Ben Silbermann and the interview that the quote came from. Silbermann equated his own life experience to the ideation and usage of Pinterest. However, the more sources I consulted, the more discrepancies I noticed between his experience and the actual user experience. Pointing out these differences using irony was a tool that I employed to communicate with readers about the deception that happens when we are using Pinterest. This was a more effective method of presenting my thesis than simply regurgitating facts because I was showing my readers why they should care about what was happening.

This essay is important because I want to highlight how important it is that we are aware of the media we encounter and what we choose to consume in this fast-paced internet culture. With the way that the internet functions now, it’s easy to forget that there are real people spending hours and effort to share their artwork and writing to an online audience. They have to dance around the algorithm in order to receive an ounce of appreciation or acknowledgement from an audience that swipes past posts within five seconds. This is the reality in which we live now- where we entrust algorithms to interact with other humans even though they are designed to generate profits. It feels like something is lost in translation; perhaps it’s our sense of humanity that is lost when we start calling artists “content creators.” This essay acknowledges and appreciates the online artists and writers who have shaped the person that I am today. 

Jasmin Sabirin (Tandon ’24) hails from Johor Bahru, Malaysia and majors in chemical and biomolecular engineering at the Tandon School of Engineering. Outside of her STEM-based curriculum, she can be found watching C-drama, starting new crochet projects, and fighting writer’s block. A long time follower of fandom spaces, she has witnessed rampant art theft across social media platforms and the valid frustration from artists whose original work gets posted without proper credit. Her essay explores how Pinterest manages to steal user-provided content by branding the platform as a visual discovery engine focused on optimizing individualized experiences while ignoring content rights.