How Pinterest and Svpply Work



To understand how Pinterest and Svpply are a type of hunting and gathering behavior, it's helpful to know how each site works. At its core, Svpply allows its users to share and discover products. There are some other features, like creating gift guides or wish lists, but it all centers around the products and helping people discover well-designed goods.

Pinterest, on the other hand, is much more broad in focus, allowing users to share and find stuff of all kinds. It is based on the idea of "pinning" items to virtual cork boards as a way to organize all the neat things you may see online each day. While I use Svpply more as a virtual shopping tool, on Pinterest I've been using the boards to keep track of DIY projects I find interesting, recipes I'd like to try someday (I Could Eat That) and beautiful pictures of homes, cabins or campsites I find inspiring (I Could Sleep There).

Like other social-media services, both Pinterest and Svpply encourage users to follow and be followed by other users, so everyone's experience will vary based on who they follow.

Can Digital Materialism Prevent Real-World Consumerism?



One of the reasons I like Svpply so much is I have found it to be helpful in buying fewer, but better, things. One way I use Svpply is to find high-quality merchandise from small businesses that manufacture goods in the US. When I actually buy something I find there, the digital shopping that takes place on Svpply is still helping to contribute to real-world consumerism, but perhaps a less-bad variety, if people are using it to find quality goods that will last and supporting small and US-based businesses.

TreeHugger was founded with the intention of showing how modern environmentalism doesn't have to mean the abandonment of style or comfort of good design. In fact, sustainability demands those things, because caring about the environment doesn't mean you won't ever buy anything again, but it should mean that you will think about your purchases. Buying less, but better, is much smarter than buying cheap, mass-produced junk that is bound to break or wear out and be replaced with more cheap junk. In general, investing in quality-designed products is the wiser environmental choice because they will last longer and require fewer natural resources to produce and maintain.

Instant Gratification With Bookmarking Can Replace Actual Consumption

The more interesting angle to the shopping via bookmark idea is that in some instances bookmarking is even replacing real-world consumption. Just as Megan Garber explained the endorphin hit we can get from adding a great story to our Instapaper queue, I have found that adding items to my Svpply page gives me a similarly pleasant rush of some pleasure-inducing chemicals. When I spot something online that I think has nice design, might be worth-buying later or would make a good gift, I'll happily click the Buy Later button in my browser to add it to my Svpply page. Once it is there, I am able to revisit the product later and decide if it is really something I want to buy. I have often removed something later that, in an earlier time, I may have actually bought, not realizing I didn't actually like the design as much as I had thought or simply that I didn't need it.