Pinterest sparks creativity by focusing on positivity

While many people look to social media as a way to connect, Pinterest is more than just another media space that comes with hours of scrolling through a person’s feed. What started as a visual discovery tool has evolved into a way to inspire others. It is more than just the visual, it is the push to inspire action in the real world.

In the past year, many people have found that social media can be both a positive and a negative. While people long for a connection with others, the reality is that written words without a face can be quite cutting. Although some people would never dare to strike back with a sharp tongue in person, the safety behind the screen holds a different tale.

To foster a positive environment, Pinterest has created the Pinterest Creator Code. In a way, this decision shows how the platform not only inspires others but influences others.

While the term influencer is often thrown about, that concept of encouraging others to step outside of themselves does have meaning. It is more than just pushing someone to buy a product or try a new concept. It can be about discovering a new part of yourself.

How does the Pinterest Creator Code push the conversation forward?

Allowing creativity to flow freely takes courage. By being vulnerable, even in an online space, a person has to learn to appreciate that with every positive affirmation a negative one might follow it. With the Pinterest Creator Code, the platform wants to make the positive affirmations the focus of the user experience.

Evan Sharp, Co-Founder, Chief Design and Creative Officer, Pinterest, said “We’ve been building Pinterest for 11 years, and ever since our users routinely tell us that Pinterest is the ‘last positive corner of the internet’. In that time, we’ve also learned that you need to design positivity into online platforms as deliberately as much as you design negativity out. The Creator Code is a human-centric way for Creators to understand how to be successful on Pinterest while using their voice to keep Pinterest positive and inclusive.”

Although all non-affirming statements will never fully disappear (who hasn’t heard someone say the phrase bless her heart), the reality is that focusing on the positive can have a ripple effect. Just like one stone thrown in the pond might make a small splash, the waves that it dissipates last much longer. Wouldn’t it be better to have that positive comment have a far reaching, long lasting impact?

When Pinterest launched this Creator Code, the whole focus is on positivity and inclusivity. In a world that often focuses on the differences between others, this platform is making a positive choice to bring people together.

Through its creators and even celebrity ambassadors, like Jonathan Van Ness, Pinterest wants to stand as an example to others. As Van Ness poignantly said the platform looks to “humanize each other”. Specifically speaking to the Creator Code, he said, “it really focuses on positivity and inclusion, and that doesn’t mean we don’t have to talk about difficult things. It means that we are not dehumanizing, it’s not tearing folks down, it’s not negatively oriented, it’s not an echo chamber of hate.”

Even though scrolling through Pinterest may not make you an award winning chef, an impeccable home decorator or the most stylish person in your friend circle, it can be that five minute reprieve on an overwhelming day, a moment to dream about that next travel adventure or that encouragement to take a bold step in a different direction.

In many ways, Pinterest is a new form of that vision board that sat in clear view from a desk. From a word mantra to an inspirational symbol, those scenes weren’t meant to be just decoration on a wall. They served as the motivation to step away from the chair and experience what is all around.

Just like the child who had no fear to combine the most unlikely colors in a drawing, who saw a creativity spring from their imagination, and danced without a care in the world, adults can find that sliver of unabashed safe space to be free from the negatives and don’ts. When anything is possible, the world of creativity seems limitless. In some ways, the Pinterest Creator Code is that open door that people are longing to step through.

How do you let your creativity be expressed? Does feedback stifle your expression?