What Women Love (an Informal Study of Pinterest)

My Pinterest board, filled with random stuff.

It seems like you can’t go anywhere on the Internet these days without hearing about Pinterest. For those who are miraculously unaware of what it is, it’s essentially an online scrapbook where you can “pin” things that you find interesting: recipes, home decor, that pair of boots that you covet, the hairdo that you wish you had the nerve to try. And the user base is predominantly women.

On my recent sick days, I spent more time trolling the Internet than any person really should, and did my share of poking around on Pinterest. If this were the only record of humanity that lasted 500 years into the future, here’s what future humans would assume about our world in 2012.

There are four types of hairstyles: very short, very long, complicated braids and updos, and crayon colors.
We are obsessed with nail polish.
We really, really want to know how to wear a scarf.
Someone is making a fortune from investing in companies that manufacture mason jars. Make your own lotion in a mason jar! Make dessert in a mason jar! Mason jars as home decor!
In spite of dire predictions that no one actually cooks at home anymore, we all covet kitchens that are roughly 1,800 square feet in size.
Babies! Puppies! Bunnies! Kittens! We love to share cuteness!
The world is unnaturally obsessed with Ryan Gosling.
Models and thin women are universally scorned.
We have loads of time for crafts, particularly crafts that involve mason jars (see above).

Now, if you can find a craft that involves styling your hair in a complex braid while baking in a mason jar and painting your nails into elaborate colors and patterns while Ryan Gosling stands beside you holding a puppy, you could quite possibly win the Pinterest jackpot.

What have you found on Pinterest? Do you ever wonder how mason jars and Ryan Gosling became two of the hottest things on the internet? If you’d like to see the random miscellany that I find and post, follow The Betty Blog. (There’s no Ryan Gosling, but I’ll admit to some appearances by Hugh Laurie.)

Tags: crafts, hairstyles, hugh laurie, internet, mason jars, nail polish, pinterest, puppies, ryan gosling, scarves