Friday, March 16, 2012

The Perils of Pinterest

I have to confess that I LOVE Pinterest! The projects I see there inspire me to do projects of my own. It really inspires creativity! I can't spend a long time looking at the Pinterest pages, but I do love to check them regularly.

There are however a couple of perilous aspects of Pinterest though. Recently I read a note from someone on Facebook talking about how Pinterest's browsing isn't secure. I need to read up more on this, but it has made me a little nervous about browsing it lately.

The second aspect, and the one that sparked this post, is that Pinterest fills a hole that should be filled another way. If Pinterest sparks people to create and do projects, then it has been worthwhile. But what I notice is that many people look, but never actually try to do anything. That is the biggest peril of all. I know we can't do all of the projects that we pin, but if we are only pinning, and never actually doing, then we are doing ourselves an injustice. I think an innate need of people is to create. Looking at pictures of projects that other people have created, and realizing that we could do that too, somehow makes us feel we are being creative, without having to do the work!

One of the things that I have gained from Pinterest is that I have been learning how to crochet. I was first intrigued by crochet flowers that I saw. I tried those first with good success. But now I am trying to crochet infant beanie hats without much success. I have made several attempts. The first attempt produced a beanie that would be more fitting for a "cone-head". The second and third attempts I unraveled because they just weren't coming together well. But there are so many tutorial videos on youtube that I really think I will be able to get this.

If you are a Pinterest fan, be careful, and read up on the security issues that I mentioned. This is the notice that I read on my friend's wall. I appeared that he got this from a friend:
"I'm back at work (out sick yesterday) and catching up on news...take this one seriously, folks, it's sad because I love the site: Multiple vulnerabilities found in Pinterest. Pinterest, a pinboard social media Web site, was found to contain many vulnerabilities that could allow an attacker to cause serious damage. A security researcher found the site, which has more than 10 million active users, has extremely poor security. He identified a cross-site scripting vulnerability and an iframe injection issue that could allow hackers to hijack user accounts and perform other malicious operations. With the aid of another security tesearcher, he found a URL redirection flaw that could be leveraged to redirect the site’s visitors to other potentially malicious domains."

So be careful as you pin. But in the mean time, check out my cone-head hat and crocheted flowers. :)

6 comments:

Rummuser said...

I am amazed that you find the time for so many things to do. I had never heard of Pinterest and had to research for it. Thank you.

Becky said...

Those are beautiful flowers, and I was imagining something much more point-y when you said conehead! What's the old saying? Practice makes perfect!

Erin said...

There's also the issue of needing "permission" to pin images and whatever you pin therefore becomes property of pinterest and can be sold by pinterest. So by pinning you are saying that have been given permission to pin that image. The way I look at it though, is (as long as pinned correctly) it increases traffic and revenue for blogs/websites. Who's going to complain about that? :) I do love to make things I've pinned, and I love how all my ideas and projects become organized so I can find them later!

Inklings said...

I don't think your beanie looks so cone-headed. I like to scan what the people I follow have pinned - I'm following people who find cute ideas, and I have made some of it. My daughter tries recipes off there all the time. The people who started it had a good idea, so I hope the site can become more secure.

Delirious said...

THe interesting thing Ramana is that I made that hat while watching a tv program. It really went quick!

Grannymar said...

I love the flowers and your hat reminds me of the early days when I began to crochet. Keep going girl and soon you will be experimenting without patterns! I mean it. Good luck.