Corkboards and scrapbooks have turned into a virtual outlet of creativity for some students.
Pinterest is an online community that allows users to create boards and pin recipes, pictures, quotes and even TCU-themed items.
Exclusiveness makes Pinterest different than some other social media sites because it is an invite only website. Users can either request an invite from the website or ask a friend to send them an invitation. Facebook and Twitter allow whomever to join their site and log-in immediately after an e-mail confirmation.
Sophomore writing major Caisey Robertson said she enjoyed the invite-only aspect of the site.
“You’re kind of guaranteed that you’re going to know somebody already. It creates the community because it’s the community creating itself,” she said. “You can spend hours searching through all these different people and find more people to follow.”
Senior advertising and public relations major Angelica Plasencia began using Pinterest around September by requesting an invite from the website. She said she sent around 15 invites to her friends and all of them created an account.
Plasencia said she is planning a wedding for a friend and they post things they like on each other’s boards to keep their ideas in one spot. Plasencia said she also uses the site for her internship and personal life.
Robertson said she has boards for quotes, makeup design, crafts, recipes, TCU and inspiration for writing.
Pinterest gives users the option to download a “Pin It” button to their browser. Users can pin a photo of something they like from other sites and add the photo and site link to their board.
Robertson said she found and bought a TCU Pillow Pet on Pinterest and is knitting something else she found on the site.
“I graduate in May, so I was looking at TCU cakes and graduation cakes and there are a lot of cute things out there that are TCU related,” Plasencia said.
Junior political science major Jillian Voigt said she enjoyed crafts and searched through the Do-It-Yourself while on Pinterest. Voigt said her boards included TCU, Sigma Kappa, crafts, quotes, funny pictures and cute animals.
Voigt said two hours was the longest she was logged-on to Pinterest but now is on regularly for 30 minutes a day.
Robertson and Voigt both said Pinterest was not geared toward men and had not seen any men use the site. Robertson said she thought the layout of the site was also feminine, and most pins were girlish even though the website included examples of men and women using their boards for clothes, inspiration and weddings.
“What girl doesn’t like wedding planning and decorating your house and things like that?” Plasencia said.
