perhaps this blog is more a journal entry, given i just saw the news of pinterest's C-suite reshuffle about two hours ago while procrastinating on linkedin. new hires include lee brown (doordash, spotify) as a newly-created chief business officer and claudine cheever (amazon) as chief marketing officer as the platform heads towards fulfilling its potential as an "ai-driven shopping platform" - literally bill ready's words, and baby he just made ceo.
according to axios it is shopping, rather than browsing, which makes up the primary activity on the platform. but as a gen z pinterest addict, this doesn't resonate at all. pinterest has a clearly defined role in shopping and trend construction but my experience of the app and various pieces of reportage suggest a more individual, personalised use case.
pinterest is one of the few "quiet" social media platforms remaining. others include tumblr, bluesky, x (to an extent), and reddit. these platforms aren't video-forward with short-form on autoplay. pinterest's somewhat siloed design also allows a media-no-social experience, where likes and comments are secondary to your own personal curation. the content, rather than the engagement, takes centre stage. alongside tumblr, it's possibly one of the only mainstream (yes tumblr counts as mainstream) platforms to have that. in an article by meg donohue for elle, pinterest rep andréa mallard emphasised the lack of performance required for pinterest users, and the priority of creative collaboration.
users are protective of this space. the backlash to the flood of genAI slop on pinterest was immediate, and has since been remedied/plastered by a setting that allows you to toggle genAI for different content categories (which assumes it can be identified - obviously it doesn't always work). the platform is both used and reviled by artists, who make extensive "drawing ref" boards but also find their work reposted to pinterest sans-credit on the reg.
but genAI isn't what bill ready means when he says ai-driven; he's talking about recommendations. they want to use ai to refine recommendations for a hyper-personalised pinterest feed experience.
the personalised feed has been feeding (i know) my reservations about pinterest for some time now. as someone who endeavours to avoid instagram and tiktok, and who rarely uses bluesky, and who uses tumblr obsessively for one week every 3 months, it's kind of a safe haven to avoid having to interact. the scroll-with-music time is great and i have always loved to curate. over the past 4 or so years i have legitimately discovered my personal taste through at least 80% pinterest use, and i do genuinely love it. but my appetite feels too big for it; the feed feels limiting. i can and do search for pins outside of my usual taste, but most of my app usage (and i imagine the same is true for many others) comes from scrolling the feed - and at times, it's genuinely boring.
so can ai introduce diversity to an algorithm, or only reduce it? the intention of these algorithm trends towards ai features, such as dialogic algorithms you can speak to, is to create a perfect algorithm, one that will show you exactly what you need when you need it. they want the ultimate content: something that perfectly resonates with you, drawing the maximum emotional and digital engagement from you.
it sounds delightful and convenient to have that, but the trends are already bucking in the other direction with 2026 predictions including a rise in demand for IRL experiences and "analog" systems (a term already being hailed as overused and it's not even february lol). in my social media circles, there have been endless discussions around developing taste, who has taste, and what taste even is nowadays, which all in some way centre around friction and escaping this hyper-personalised bubble.
but i've not actually seen any evidence that we actually DO want friction in our lives. bean soup theory is alive and well in comments sections even when it's not egregious. the phrase "i built this fyp brick by brick" humorously emphasises the unique fit of a ridiculous video for the viewer by referencing continued interaction (as a substitute for any real work) that results in a supposedly tailored experience. even the virality of bedrotting (about which you can read this great post) vaguely valorises completely frictionless "hobbies". it remains to be seen if 2026 is the year we're all outside, but the ipods and wired headphones are not convincing me so far!
besides my distaste for frictionless personalisation, the commerce aspect completely undercuts the positive messaging pinterest is keen to uphold. cheever says she wants marketers to be able to capitalise on the relevance pinterest can daub their products with; aiming for ads to never "feel creepy or weird" but instead "rich and useful". at the end of the day though, you're still capitalising on want. it is creepy and weird. so why are we intent on pretending otherwise?
it's the latest instalment in the insidious flip that marketing has taken - from creating a narrative you choose to be a part of, to creating a narrative about you without your consent. it's always been creepy - marketing has always meant to push into your psyche and give you a way out. that's why it's so interesting! it's always been about constructing a narrative for yourself. but now you don't get to discover that narrative. you don't get to have the feeling of seeing something completely outside your life experience for the first time and going "holy shit, that's me, i need more of that". every piece of content will feel like it was made for you and so you never get to escape yourself. you never get to be in charge of the narrative.
so yes, i will be paying attention to what happens next. we'll have to see how pinterest will change as a result of this; i just find it hilarious to name-drop ai for a platform that i perceive to have a heavily anti-ai userbase. but this is the year of Me - personalisation is the watchword. it's probably a great move for pinterest to lead the way on that. it's just a shame that brand narrative has to capitulate.
anyway, i've already spent recent months diversifying away from pinterest - are.na will give you the magpie functionality you so desire, but you have to find the content yourself. it has the healthy amount of porn gifs that signifies it's still a user-centric platform (you can toggle).
peace
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