Men at California Baptist University have taken up pinning on a website that appeals primarily to women.
“It [men using Pinterest] doesn’t make sense to me because a lot of the content on the site is geared towards girls,” Kristina Hedberg, junior, said.
Pinterest.com is the virtual pinboard website that allows users to browse and share pins with their followers. The pins found on Pinterest range from recipes and wedding ideas to do- it-yourself projects and much more.
According to Alissa Skelton’s Mashable.com article titled “Social Demographics: Who’s Using Today’s Biggest Networks,” “Pinterest has the heaviest gender imbalance – 82 percent of users are women, who pin crafts, gift ideas, hobbies, interior design and fashion.”
However, with plenty of CBU women using Pinterest, this website didn’t go unnoticed by the male population.
“I noticed a friend using it one day, and she showed me some architectural photos I liked,” David Magana, junior, said. “I knew that most everything on the site was very girly, but discovered that I could just search for what I wanted to look at and found myself occasionally looking at photos.”
Aside from the categories that interest girls, Pinterest offers categories like Cars & Motorcycles, Men’s Apparel, Sports, Architecture and more.
“Though widely regarded as an attractive website for females, once a guy spends time sifting through the Ryan Gosling photos and ‘shoe’ boards, he can find pictures of epic beards and recipes for all things bacon,” Sammy Ramos, senior, said.
Aside from discovering what they are interested in, men can take interest in what female friends are pinning as well.
According to Ramos, some of the pins that his female friends post are not always relevant to him specifically, but he can appreciate when “humorous posts” and “tasty treats” have been pinned.
“I think it’s totally fine if guys have a Pinterest,” Samantha Waskel, junior, said.
Pinterest also allows users to organize their pins by board, which allows for easier retrieval later.
“I think it’s [Pinterest] a good way to organize thoughts and things you dream of. That way it’s easier to achieve them. When boys use it, this shows me that they have the possibility of being organized in thought … possibly having goals for the future like me,” Corinne Yuenger, senior, said.
Although some CBU men have taken to using Pinterest, others shy away from using it.
“Pinterest is for girls,” Andrew Buchholz, senior, said.
Regardless of whether users are male or female, Pinterest has content for all users – they just have to be willing to search for it.
