Pinterest Adds 10 Coping Exercises to Its Well-Being Activities

  Rassegna Stampa, Social
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Pinterest expanded on the well-being activities it added in July for Pinners searching for terms indicating that they may be struggling.

Co-founder and chief creative and design officer Evan Sharp revealed in a blog post that 10 new coping exercises were added for when users search for terms related to self-injury.

The new activities rolled out in the U.S. Thursday on Pinterest’s iOS and Android applications (version 7.37 and above), and Sharp said Pinterest is working to bring them to more people in more places.

He wrote, “Each exercise is guided with steps that people can take to manage their feelings, such as ways to redirect energy, release tension or create a calm environment. For example, let’s say you typed in, ‘self hate,’ and chose the ‘redirect your energy’ activity. It would suggest starting a journal and rereading it a few days later to get some perspective on your thoughts. Or, if writing isn’t your thing, you could try drawing a nature scene or making a playlist.”

Sharp added that the activities came from Pinterest’s work with emotional health experts, and they are not intended to replace professional care.

He also noted that Pinterest ensured that the experience felt separate from the rest of the platform, with gentler colors to create a sense of harmony and calmness, as well as a full-screen approach with optimized typography to make the activities easier to read and follow.

Pinterest added the ability in October for Pinners to access the well-being activities it released in July by searching for #pinterestwellbeing, and that applies to the coping exercises that debuted Thursday, as well.

The guided activities were created with the help of emotional health experts from Brainstorm at the Stanford Lab for Mental Health Innovation, along with advice from Vibrant Emotional Health and the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline.

Sharp concluded, “For some of the most painful emotional experiences—urges to self-injure or thoughts of suicide—most tech platforms are good at connecting people to crisis hotlines. But there’s a gap between urges to self-injure and thoughts of suicide. Experts confirm that these are different emotional states, and they require different solutions—most people who injure themselves are often not suicidal in the moment, and instead are looking for a way to cope with their emotions. The exercises we created bridge that gap, offering new ways for someone to reduce their stress levels in the moment and giving them tools they can use on a regular basis to cope with their emotions. And if they ever need access to crisis prevention support, it’s readily available from our app.”

https://www.adweek.com/digital/pinterest-adds-10-coping-exercises-to-its-well-being-activities/