I’ve actually found a way to turn back time. (ok, ok. Big statement there but here me out.) Remember those good old days when your Pinterest feed actually had pins in from the people you follow circa 2014? When you Pinned something and everyone who followed you would see that pin and you know, pin it too. Then things started to change.
This might be a little controversial but when Recommended Pins (as they were known back then) first launched on Pinterest I loved them! Every 5-10 pins from my followers popped up something beautiful based on the pins I had saved. It was probably about 90% right and I found myself saving these all the time. They just got it so right, much to the envy of some of my friends who were, for some reason not getting the great quality I seemed to be.
Even as these pins became more intrusive I still enjoyed them. But slowly I began using Pinterest less and less for fun and more as a search tool when I needed it. For years scrolling Pinterest was my favourite way to procrastinate but these days I’m bored in minutes. The final straw came one morning a couple of weeks ago when I opened up the app. I was welcomed by 5 or 6 pins based on a recent search that were definitely ‘not to my style or taste’ and not something I found aspirational or inspiring.
When I get these pins I usually click the ‘I don’t want to see this’ button in the hope that the algorithm will figure out how wrong it is and correct itself in the future. Five or six is not that bad, right? But after I finishing with these first pins, I scrolled past another 5. And then another 5, And then another. At this point I started scrolling, searching for one pin from someone, anyone I follow. And finally after a total of 91 (I counted) ‘picked for you’ and ‘ads’ I found one lowly Pin in a sea of badly picked recommendations. It stood out like a beautiful, well manicured and not at all sore thumb, in amongst badly lit product photos, tiny sweat-shop dresses and advice posts that I wholeheartedly disagree with.
I’m not against Pinterest picking out pins they think I will love or allowing paid advertisers to enter my feed. I can forgive the teething problems when they launched Ads. When I saw the same ad every 10 pins until I had to hide it, for it only to come back the next time I launched Pinterest. ‘Ok, it’s early days’ I thought. Pinterest has been good to you – let’s just wait this out. But the biggest tell is that I don’t enjoy Pinterest anymore. My user experience has continued to degrade to a point that Pinterest isn’t my go to for inspiration anymore. It’s no longer my favourite place to kill time or soak up ideas.
BUT all is not lost. There is a way to get back to good Pinterest and it’s just so simple you can do it in seconds. Turn off recommended Pins…
Pinterest recently gave us this option but I have resisted turning off recommended pins, waiting to see if we would get the good ones back again. But after turning them off I have no idea why I waited so long. My Pinterest is once again a beautiful place that is fast becoming my favourite app, after being neglected for so long.
To turn off your recommended Pins just head to the ‘settings’ tab (click on your profile pic in the top right-hand corner) and then to your ‘Home feed’ option on the left-hand side. Click to turn off the ‘Picked for you’ pins. From this point on you won’t see additional picked for you pins although you will need to wait a short while for more pins to appear in you feed.
Now go ahead and enjoy your new/old Pinterest feed. And you can and actually see what I pin. YAY!
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