The main component of the website is the pinboard style interface. Users can create their own area called a “board” and upload media of their own interest or they can upload media to an unrelated board. As well users can “pin” media from another person’s board to their own. As popularised by Facebook, there is a function that allows users to “like” photos.
Freedom from physical constraints and power are two important aspects of this website. The freedom from physical restraints notion manifests itself in the ability of the user to be able to view photos and therefore scenery from throughout the world while in one place, as well as being able to meet people from all around the world. This relates back to the small world hypothesis from Watts and Strogatz whereby they state that there is a short path between any user on a social network. (Buchanan 2002)
Notions of power in this website are expressed in a hierarchical structure. New users are usually at the bottom of this map whereby they have no contacts and no photos and therefore no recognition from the wider social network community, as users establish themselves they move up the hierarchy thereby gaining more “power”. This moves us back to John Allen’s comment: “Much of this book is given over to reminding us of the difference that geography can make to the exercise of power: that power in its various guises takes effect through distinctive relations of proximity and reach, and in so doing exercises our lives in ways that are not always so familiar.” (Allen 2003) So the geography in this sense is the Hierarchical structure inherent in Pinterest and by progressing through the map power is gained.
References:
Allen, J. (2003). Lost geographies of power. Malden, Mass., Blackwell Pub.
Buchanan, M. (2002). Nexus : small worlds and the groundbreaking science of networks. New York, W.W. Norton.
Image Credits
Deal, M and Pagan, J. (2013) Pinterest Logo. Retrieved from Wikimedia Commons
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