Is it OK to use Pinterest as a source?

Ah, technology - too often you come in as a white horse but damage us in ways we'd never expect. While I've been a long supporter of Pinterest I've recently noticed a problem with the social networking site. It's not an inherent issue with the concept itself, but rather with the way people are using it. 

On Instagram I've come across lots of posts where people hashtag Pinterest as the source of their photos - often on images that could easily be mistaken as their own. The #inspiration and #pinterest tags are the only thing included to indicate it's not actually their feet in the photo or their view out the plane window. Is this OK? It's only made worse by the fact that often times the photos belong to bloggers that I know and they aren't getting credited. There are whole Instagram accounts that feature nothing but inspiration photos. Some of them have tens of thousands of followers and don't credit where a single photo comes from. 

I'm guilty of having done similar things on this blog. When I do inspiration posts (like this one) there's a string of images and the source links back to my Pinterest boards. Each individual image also links back to the original pin it came from. But is this really an acceptable way to cite my sources or am I just as bad as the people on Instagram that stick in a cheeky #pinterest under their shot?

Tell me what you think. I'm on the fence on this one.

Photos from a selection on Pinterest.

HEY PIN HEAD...

'Are you on Pinterest?'

Consider this the Instagram question of April... if no one has asked you yet, trust me, they will.

Everybody and (especially) their mom is on Pinterest. It exploded faster than your most recent ill-fated relationship. That's fast. Except, Pinterest isn't a cringe-inducing-stubble-faced memory we wish we could forget... it's only just taking off. Already 2 years old, it's no spring chicken - so why all the fuss about it now? Well, it's one of the fastest growing websites in history. Yeah, that's right... apparently, the site had 17 million unique visitors last month. That's a heckuva-lotta pinning. It's also a big enough number to make companies and designers start raising their eyebrows. Originally it was scoffed at for being a less-good version of Tumblr. Just another social media start-up that would fizzle out. It caters to old ladies and pretty fuzzy things... it will never catch on. Suddenly, that doesn't seem to be the case anymore and now everybody wants a piece of the pinboard pie.

Why am I talking about this? Because, I've been on Pinterest for almost a year and I'm so glad that other people are finally starting to join. I freaking love it. It's revolutionized the way I keep track of things I like online. You can pin photos from any website (I have noticed though that you can't pin on blogs you visit through Bloglovin... so just visit the site directly if you want to pin something). You can be as organized as you want with your boards. Create a hundred-thousand if you want - they can be about anything. I've dedicated an entire board to hot babes (i.e. fashion girls I know and love - not the Maxim sort of hot babe). You can break down your fashion inspiration into seasons, pull together all the yummy recipes you want to cook, make mood boards, plan the redecoration of your flat or brainstorm ideas of where you want to go on holiday. The possibilities are endless.

The best thing? It automatically links back to the website the photo was pinned from so you don't need to worry that you're stealing other people's work - in fact, it encourages people to visit the original source. Not only is this awesome in terms of online copyright protection it also makes your life so. much. easier. Gone are the days of searching through your browser's history to try to find that website where you saw that incredible thing.

Just pin it.

Now, don't forget: follow me here, leave a link so I can follow you back and if you need an invite to join then holler this way - I'll try to send one. Let. the. stalking. commence.

p.s. images from the Monday Issue, Film is Awesome Sauce, LN-CC, Anthropologie...