Image via Wikipedia

Have you heard about the image-based (as compared to word-based) social network called Pinterest? It seems to be a hot topic in many conversations these day. I’ve been lurking on Pinterest’s site for several months, Here’s a description of Pinterest that I found on Galleycat that seems to explain it pretty well:  http://www.mediabistro.com/galleycat/:

“Pinterest lets you organize and share all the beautiful things you  find on the web. People use pinboards to plan their weddings, decorate  their homes, and organize their favorite recipes. Best of all, you can browse pinboards created by other people.  Browsing pinboards is a fun way to discover new things and get  inspiration from people who share your interests.” 

A neighbor, who is not yet 30 years old and is a stay-at-home mother of one, posted this on her Facebook status:

“I just joined Pinterest a few days ago, but I love it so much that I’ve been having dreams about finding amazing things on it!  I wake up thinking, “What did I find…oh no…I can’t remember what it was!”

Now that’s powerful – Pinterest has invaded the dream-world of my young friend! I guess it’s no big revelation that the present generation was raised on images more than written words as a form of communication. We should know by now that if you want to connect with the youth of this world,  do it with pictures. Pinterest has definitely used that information to good advantage,  but Pinterest has another hook going for it,in my opinion: they have made the process of participating in their social network fun! It is almost like a game to fill your own pinboard with things from the internet that you want to keep and view again (Pinterest has an application that allows you to ‘pin’ internet images, e.g. the cover of a book you enjoy), or you can re-pin images from other people’s pinboards.There is also a way to comment on the items that are pinned.  And you can follow, a la Twitter, people whose boards you like.

So,if you are ready for a new adventure in social networking that can be both useful and fun, give Pinterest a try.http://pinterest.com/ See you on the boards!