All too often, when discussing the harmful effects of social media, the conversation surrounds platforms like Instagram, where overly edited and carefully curated content can lead to users’ obsession with self-image. Yet my ideal life lives on a single site, organized into 23 distinct mood boards filled with over 2,000 images (and counting!) of beautiful homes, expensive clothes, and delicious meals.

While different aspects of my life are divided across social media, with Instagram holding my photographic memories and Twitter storing every obscure thought I’ve had, it’s Pinterest that contains my fantasy of the future.

Speaking from a daily user (and as someone who got her go-to soft pretzel recipe from it), this is not to discredit the site, but rather to shed light on the effects of overuse. Mood boards and future planning have no inherent negativity, but the heavy romanization of a perfect future can produce feelings of discontent. I’ve found that rather than appreciating the place that I’m at in my life, I instead channel my energy into yearning for a picture-perfect future.

I think back to my freshman year dorm room. I had a Pinterest board overflowing with design ideas, from desk decor to wall hangings and aesthetically-pleasing images to collage with. I truly felt that when I had completed my dream dorm, everything would fall into place.

If you compared the final product to my pins, you’d struggle to find any original ideas on my behalf. A miniature Himalayan salt lamp sat on my desk, a butterfly tapestry (overpriced from Urban Outfitters) and a golden moon phase hanging (see previous parenthetical) decorated my wall, and my pink bedding matched perfectly with the photos that hung beside my bed. It was a Pinterest board that came to life inside the Little Building, and I was … wholly unsatisfied.

Idealizing my dorm room was one thing, but trying to meet the sky-high expectations that I had set was another. Little things that were never featured in dorm pictures online, like the stack of unwashed dishes on my desk or the overflowing laundry bag hanging from my bedpost, filled me with undeniable disappointment. I felt that there were perfect dorm rooms out there (read: perfect lives!), with Pinterest as a testament to that, and it was simply out of my reach.

I had always been told that everything on Instagram was fake, but the same had never been said for Pinterest. To me, Pinterest and Instagram were on two different sides of the same spectrum, where one of them was an authentic way to post photos. Pinterest was supposed to be achievable, and I was supposed to live the lives I pinned.

The truth is, nothing on social media is achievable, even on a website dedicated to creating mood boards. Every post is carefully edited and takes a great deal of consideration. To strive for a future like the ones on Pinterest is like striving for the life of an Instagram influencer: disappointment is far more likely than success.

Let’s Put a Pin in That