By Kaydee Donohoo
Staff Writer
A few nights ago, at my sleepy-one-last-phonecheck time, a notification shook me to my very core. One of my havens was infiltrated. I learned that my high school ex-boyfriend made a Pinterest and started following mine.
I have poured hours into my Pinterest. It was a space of control of virtual organization, a never-ending craft project for all the things I love in life.
Sorry, but I don’t want an ex poking his opinions into that, or the thought of his opinions hanging over me when I want to pin. He is not at all aligned with who I am today, or who I really even was in high school. Yesterday, he liked a post about how Andrew Jackson was “defamed, disparaged” when Harriet Tubman replaced him on the $20, for goodness’ sake. I should have never dated this human, but that is high school.
Now he can see my personal board? Conservatively disagreeing with my handful of liberal pins? Judging my plans for wallpapering my future house? Thinking that I comment annoying things on pins when they are actually thoughts of the last pinners, because I was too lazy to change them? I would never write, “HAHAHA THESE GIFS.” I’m more of a “haha” person.
You might be thinking: “If you didn’t want your ex to follow you, why not set the account without your name?”
My Pinterest has 86 followers, with individual boards with as many as 42. A source of pride for me is that most of these are strangers, yet my friends and family wouldn’t have seen or spread my page without my name.
The personas we create online undeniably have a sacred quality to them. The gift of getting to share them can be a hinderance of having to share them.
I know there is no easy answer to this. I just wish life online didn’t have so many formalities to it. I can’t just ask my ex to stop following me. We aren’t on bad terms, we just don’t talk. It is just a frustrating system of not getting to pick and choose who gets to be in your virtual life if you also benefit from a public account.
Anyway follow me on Pinterest! Find me at pinterest.com/carebearsfan32/.
