It wants to be different from other social apps by talking about how its systems are designed to enable more positive, beneficial experiences rather than addictive, compulsive behaviors.

According to Pinterest, a new study with UC Berkeley's Greater Good Science Center finds that daily interaction with inspiring content in the app helped Gen Z college students to buffer against burnout and stress, 'even when they were studying for stressful college exams'.

Though this experiment was a little abnormality-it was from the time that Pinterest selected and subjected the participants either use it for 10 minutes of each day or working with an online jigsaw puzzle to the same minute number in the following week every single day, there should have been a sort of contrast to gauge somewhat how there is some degree of differentiation between usage or taking a neutral alternative to act out.

The researchers found that at the onset of the end year exams period, stress and anxiety levels in the participants rose:

"However, in students assigned to the Pinterest condition, we found that just 10 minutes a day seeking out inspiration buffered against the rising burnout, stress and social disconnectedness we could see in their vagal tone data. This had consequences for emotional wellbeing, physical health and social connectedness."
The study demonstrated how active engagement with inspiring content on Pinterest 'mitigated the consequences of physical stress on people's daily positive emotion, preserving their capacity for feeling good', at the same time as raising social connectedness.

"'We also found that higher levels of inspiration make it easier to relax. This higher level of relaxation was uniquely 'unlocked' by seeking inspiration on Pinterest, and was not true of the control condition'".

It is an interesting study that, while the online puzzles v. Pinterest may not make for a full-proof analysis of the benefits accruable generally from using the social service, it presents at least some measure to know about how the system is bringing positive emotions to a site.

In addition, Pinterest has explained how its work on this front differs from others because it has tried to shape its instruments around more healthy interactions rather than optimizing for raw engagement.

We had made conscious choices over the last decade-plus to engineer a better place online. So for example, our algorithm places greater emphasis on the explicit signals of people on Pinterest: more thoughtful active engagements like 'saving' an idea. Those active signals form the basis of what you first see on Pinterest.

Pinterest said social platforms need to be more intentional about what they rank and more realistic about the effect it can cause.
Ranking for views will certainly bring some good entertaining content to the fore, but it's just as good at bringing up divisive and polarizing content that keeps people stuck. If we are to curb the crisis social media has created, then the only option is to tell AI to do something different.

According to Pinterest, it is trying to break this trend with the help of 'inspired actions', and direct user signals, so that people are shown what they want to see and not what will keep them scrolling, necessarily.

"A good example of one of those actions is 'saves'. When people see something on Pinterest that they want to act on, they hit 'save'.". And when we make what 'gets saved' in content shown to people first on the platform, suddenly all those images and videos on top do not distract from your life anymore (a gross-out video or some conspiracy theory), but will actually improve it: how-to videos, self-care ideas, inspirational quotes. By simply asking AI to focus on something more nutritious, we build a positive and inspiring internet.

Another thing Pinterest highlights its policies relating to the protection of teens, their inclusive features and other features that make the space much more welcoming and positive compared to other social media websites.

This is an interesting consideration, one that most social platforms have at least voiced, in relation to wanting to create more meaningful, beneficial experiences as opposed to maximizing time spent. But at the same time, user counts and time spent are key metrics for social platforms, so it only makes sense that they want to optimize for those metrics-which, as noted by Pinterest, can also feature negative content amplified, for argument and division are prime elements in "engagement" via comment responses.

It is good to see Pinterest taking a more definitive stand on this, and even though the comparison study might not feel like a conclusive argument for its full benefits, it does give some indication that Pinterest usage can lead to positive and beneficial experiences.