Believe it or not, it may have all started with Pinterest.
The Allure of Pinterest in Modern Culture
Pinterest is a huge success and transcends far beyond an internet sensation — it’s a cultural phenomenon. Consider, for example, that 42 percent of online adult women use Pinterest. And while female users are certainly the site’s focus, men aren’t shying away from Pinterest either. As of last count, 13 percent of online adult males use the website. There are more than 72.8 million active users and the social networking site is expected to reach 47.1 million in the U.S. alone by the end of the year.
While marketers and advertisers salivate at the thought of Pinterest’s growth potential, it’s becoming increasingly interesting to watch how the website is fundamentally changing the mindset of the average user. For better or worse, Pinterest is inundating people with the apparent need to do everything themselves.
Compound this with the average social media user’s desire to constantly show others what they’re up to, what they’ve accomplished, and how successful they are, and you get a Pinterest culture that thrives on DIY projects. “Pinterest not only allows for Gen Y to brag about their latest creation, but it also allows them to discover unique projects to try for themselves,” writes Jeff Fromm of MillennialMarketing.com.
DIY Trends Stemming from Pinterest
Pinterest isn’t the only factor in the DIY trend, but many of the trends certainly stem from it. One of the more pervasive trends involves replacing specialization with self-learning. Many traditional tasks that would have required a professional 10 years ago are now being handled without expert help. You can argue all day about whether this is good or bad for society, but it’s hard to deny that our culture is headed towards a generation of YouTube learners — not career professionals with specialized talents.
For example, many landlords and property owners — with the assistance of internet tutorials and online videos — are now taking a DIY approach to maintenance and repairs, as opposed to outsourcing odd jobs to professionals. While it saves money and increases the property owner’s skillset, it also eats up time and may possibly lead to substandard work.
While it’s been around for decades and may not immediately be considered a DIY practice, homeschooling has ultimately increased in popularity since Pinterest’s rise. Parents are convinced that they can handle their child’s education better than the U.S. public school system.
In the U.S., homeschooling is increasing at a rate of eight percent per year. Approximately 3.4 percent of school-aged children are now educated in the home, a number that’s slowly encroaching on the 10 percent of students who attend private school. Among the most common reasons for homeschooling include being able to customize curriculum, teaching certain values and beliefs, and seeking to accomplish more than traditional schools allow for.
As Victoria N. Alexander recently wrote, “So don’t wait for the government to fix our educational system. Do it yourself with homeschooling.” That’s the mindset many are taking, and it’s not necessarily a bad thing – or is it?
Jessica Grose of New Republic isn’t so keen on the DIY mentality that’s permeating culture. “The other cultural shift behind the rise of DIY, is the decline of the value of expertise,” she writes. “To become a great, say, knitter, it would take hundreds of hours of practice. But in the Wikipedia world, expertise is no longer valued in quite the same way. Why knit a beer coozie when you can make one out of an old sock?” she quips.
Her logic is that specialization makes the world go round and excessive DIY’ers are ruining classic art forms and quality work. Instead, everyone seems to think they can make things on their own, even if they’re far lower quality than what you would pay for in the traditional marketplace.
The Future of Pinterest and DIY
While Grose and others may not like the fact that Pinterest is growing and creating an army of amateur DIYers, the reality is that Pinterest and other popular networking sites that encourage ingenuity and creativity aren’t going anywhere in the near future.
Whether it’s home improvement or home schooling, Pinterest has captured the hearts of DIY enthusiasts and both directly and indirectly led to fundamental shifts in the way we approach certain issues and responsibilities in our lives. That’s a fact — and we’ll have to deal with consequences one way or another.
