The other night, one of my friends was over to hang out and cut my hair. As we were chatting about haircuts and colors, we inevitably ended up on Pinterest. Yes, inevitably. Having both been largely inactive on the platform for years, what was initially a quick search for hairstyle inspiration transformed into a search of our past selves — as stored in mood boards, style inspiration, ideas for future plans… all saved through thousands of ‘pins’.
We found out that both of us had been avid Pinterest users during a certain period of our teenage years and started to compare our Pinterest boards. Being university friends with no common background pre-Leiden, the interesting thing was that we had very similar boards, pins, and even cringy names for said boards. (Maybe our friendship was predestined, who knows). This brought to mind Perihaan’s blog from last week about how our social media has the possibility to influence our personality, and I couldn’t help but wonder if maybe we’d been consuming the same kind of media content growing up.
Down the rabbit hole
We were quickly done glancing over the hairstyles that initially took us to Pinterest and instead started going through the other boards we’d saved during our more active years on there. Launching ourselves into a Pinterest rabbit hole, we’d every so often point out a particularly cringe-worthy pin or ugly design and ask each other “how could I like that?”. The whole exercise produced quite a few laughs and, I think, gave us both a better idea about what the other had been like as a teenager.
What surprised us was how much we could tell about our younger selves from those pins. We could see what kind of clothes, interior designs, houses, activities, and books we were interested in. We could almost tell our moods based on the quotes we’d saved, and what external media (outside Pinterest) we were influenced by based on pop culture references.
Of course, someone looking at our Pinterest profiles without any knowledge about us may not have gotten the same takeaways that we did (since we also remembered why we’d saved certain pins, etc). Nevertheless, I’m sure there is quite a lot to learn about someone based on their prior digital habits and media use.
Digital diaries and (lack of) privacy
This takes me to the whole concept of digital diaries. My generation’s obsession with YouTube, Instagram, and even TikTok may stem from the need to document our activities, emotions, and ideas.
The other day, I told my mom that I’d found my blog from when I was an exchange student (something which I thought I’d taken down years ago — yikes). The blog described my life living in the US as a 16-year-old and was mostly written to keep everyone at home up to date. In explaining the story of how I’d stumbled across my blog online, I told my how it had been fun to read through the old entries and be reminded of what I did and thought at the time.
My mom interestingly said that she had also kept a “blog” when she was an au pair in Switzerland in her 20s. Knowing that my mom’s 20s are about 30 years past, you can imagine my surprise and confusion over her purported tech savviness in the 90s.
However, she continued with: “Back then, our “blogs” were just our diaries”. Oh.
So, documenting activities, emotions, and ideas obviously isn’t something unique or to my generation. However, sharing them with the world might be. Whether this is for good or bad, I really can’t tell but what I do know is that we need better education about how to protect our privacy online — and we need it from a younger age.
Feature Image: Tracy Le Blanc/Pexels
i remember deleting so many very old tweets, tumblr posts etc. when i found them a couple years back. now i dont have much to look back at, cringy or not. i am glad i dont have to experience social media as a young teen in this time, but having something to look back to could be great just for the future memories. nice post! 😉
A very nice, short read – I can definitely relate to going down the rabbit-hole of your past-self online. From time to time I go through my archived posts on Instagram or scroll through my very old Tumblr page and I’m instantly taken back to being 15 and spending all my free time online. It’s so interesting how our generation is keeping our younger selves alive through these little time capsules. However, I definitely agree with there needing to be more education in young people’s presence online. I’m happy I never posted anything that would endanger me (like my personal information), but I’m sure I could have easily made the mistake.
Reading your blog entry about looking back inspired me to have a look at my own pinterest boards! Really funny indeed, to see what inspired me back then 🙂 What surprised me even more was actually how much I am still quite the same person with the same interests, even though I also recognize particular ‘phases’ like you mentioned. Clearly, my love for art, crafts, music, nature, travelling and quotes has always been part of my identity.
On the other side it’s indeed scary that we have given away so much of out personality (for free!) to social media companies.
Relatable! Some time ago I scrolled all the way down thru my social media account. To say I was embarrassed at what I found there would be an understatement, tho it was a bit nostalgic too. Anyways, I totally agree with you that we need better education in terms of the protection of our privacy online.
This post is so relatable! I had a very extensive Pinterest phase when I was younger haha, it is amusing to look back on. Our generation has many social media accounts to look back on: Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook, Musically, etc. etc. It is almost inevitable in this digital age to not let an online trace behind of who we are and used to be. Therefore, it is essential to teach kids growing up with all the digital stuff how to handle this safely.
As your mom, I kept a diary when I was younger. I think I was 13 when I started them and wrote until I was 16-ish. I completely forgot they existed and don’t remember what I wrote in these diaries. Now I read your blog, I will take a look at them when I’m at my parents this Christmas!:)
I think this blog is so relatable for many of our generation. Although Pinterest is something I am using since only a few years to find inspirational things for my room or hair for example, I used to post everything I did on Hyves, Twitter, and Instagram. However, I deleted so much of the content I created, and currently regret doing it, as it feels like I’ve thrown a part of my diary away. I think, as you also are saying, we can see these digital platforms are the new diaries for our generation. However, with all these personal stuff on the internet it is really important, and mainly for teenagers who post literally everything they do, how to use these things and how to protect our privacy online.