An Image of Oscar Dresses Is Blowing Up my Pinterest Site.
Without fail, nearly every single day, a little red badge shows up on my Pinterest app. Sometimes it’s a ‘1,’ sometimes it’s a ‘15.’ But, like the OCD-designer-problem-solver type that I am, I decide that I cannot have a rogue red dot sullying my organized screen. (Curse you, Apple.) And so I check, if for nothing else, to get rid of that cursed red badge.
I am aware, kind reader, that the badges can be disabled. It’s not that it’s there, it’s that I’m mystified as to why it is there. For what it represents. More below.
“Pinterest, you weirdo?” Yes, Pinterest. I, an aging straight male, have been a Pinterest — take that, analytics gurus — user for a really long time. Wikipedia says Pinterest launched in 2010; I started using Pinterest in 2011(?) originally for my graduate research (which I started in 2009), so it’s been a while. I think I was invited to a beta. I don’t remember.
I began a thesis in instructional psychology and technology in 2009 about the pedagogical advantages of using a particular tactic — small multiples — in visual designs. I chronicled dozens of my research data on Pinterest (as you do with nascent digital properties) because it was easy to post to and easy to view. You can read the whole thesis (or chapter five, the tl;dr version) if you’d like. Suffice it to say, small multiples are awesome, pedagogically sound, and often visually really stunning.
“1 year ago,” Pinterest cryptically informs me, I innocuously pinned ‘Oscar Dresses: Every Dress Worn By Best Actress Academy Award Winners.’ And rightfully so: this graphic created by fashion brand content producer MediaRun Digital (now BigGroup) in 2014 is a great piece of visual instruction.
It satisfies two of my (clenched jaw) ‘academically vetted’ objectives of small multiples:
#4, ‘define and explicate progress and process’ (the multiples are displayed chronologically and demonstrate longitudinal change in couture)
#5, ‘define and explicate the rhetorical heterogeneity of objects’ (show how 1931 differs from 1932, for example).
It’s an excellent example of small multiple principles so, logically, I added it (specifically the vertical composition) to my small multiples Pinterest board.
With glee, Pinterest tells me in its sharpest ‘color: #aaa’ that I have 1.5k followers over 6.2k pins. (Don’t judge.) Specifically, I have 463 pins attached to my ‘small multiples’ board.
What I don’t understand is why ‘Oscar Dresses: Every Dress Worn By Best Actress Academy Award Winners’ has racked up a mind-boggling 885 repins and 246 likes (loves?) in, let’s say, ~365 days. It’s not the oldest pin. It’s not even the coolest pin. By comparison, the next closest beloved pin on the small multiples board has only 27 repins and 4 like. But. So. Much. Math. To. Do. Could it be that:
- pinners love Oscar dress illustrations?
- pinners love little tiny Oscar dress illustrations?
- pinners love lots of little tiny Oscar dress illustrations?
- pinners like examples of Hollywood couture?
- pinners like to pin popular things?
Whatever the reason, thanks BigGroup and ‘Oscar Dresses: Every Dress Worn By Best Actress Academy Award Winners’ for making at least one of my Pinterest meanderings so popular.
