Ok – so I cannot even remember how I heard about Pinterest, all I remember is thinking – “hey – cool idea…a virtual bulletin board to store up cool crap I find and to see other people’s cool crap”.

I joined Pinterest several months ago and it did not take me long to notice that I am one of the few guys using it. The whole thing seems like a virtual ladyfest. The standard questions start flying through my mind in rapid fire succession – whydoilikepinterest? wherearealltheotherguys? shouldibeconcerned?

The answers to those came later – itscool, idon’tknow, probablynot.

There is nothing gender specific about Pinterest. It is a neutral techspace waiting to be filled with stuff. The only thing I can come up with about why women use it more than men is that it satisfies the nesting instinct and it is inherently social. Men tend not to be that organized and are often inherently anti-social.

So why do I like it?

Well I am a geek for one and tend to try all things tech and Pinterest is certainly tech-cool. I was also raised by a pack of women (mother and sisters) and may have been infected by some of the gentler gender’s afflictions like an appreciation for social networking. Beyond that I cannot say.

Don’t get me wrong I have found other men on Pinterest and theorize that there may be dozens out there amidst the millions of ladies. Small, rare islands of testosterone floating aimlessly in a sea of estrogen.

I have thought about creating a board called ‘Boobs’ or ‘T&A’ to man-up the place but given the primary population this would probably be about as wise as jumping into shark infested waters with raw steaks tied around my neck. As a compromise I have created a ‘Beer’ board since I love beer and for some odd reason most women don’t.

As someone who likes to cook what I eat Pinterest has also been a great place to discover and save great food/recipe ideas too.

To me Pinterest is a little like the kitchen junk drawer. You know which one I mean…the drawer where you dump a pile of seemingly random things but not so random that you don’t know what is in there. Each board I create on Pinterest is like a themed junk drawer. Food is just a bunch of food related stuff – not more organized than that. I like that.

At the end of the day Pinterest is a way of visually keeping abreast trends and ideas (did I mention that men are also very visual??) and seeing what other people are seeing. It is reasonably unique and I believe will have plenty of staying power. Men will come eventually…it will take time.

For now I will consider myself an advance scout reconnoitering new territory trying to decide if it is inhabited by friend or foe; I suspect the answer is friend and in time the main body of man troops will march in.