Introducing a more compassionate search experience for people in distress
Today we’re rolling out a collection of emotional well-being activities people can do right from our app if they’re feeling stressed, anxious or sad.
These guided activities were created with the help of emotional health experts at Brainstorm, the Stanford Lab for Mental Health Innovation, and with advice from Vibrant Emotional Health and the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. Each practice offers people an interactive way to try to improve their mood––from tools to help someone relax to self-compassion exercises.
People will see a prompt to explore these resources when they search for things like “stress quotes,” “work anxiety” or other terms that indicate they might be feeling down. The experience is not meant to replace professional care, but it may help someone if they need support.
As always, if someone is searching for something self-harm related, we continue to direct them to the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, which they can get to in just two taps.
These resources look different from the rest of Pinterest, and that’s because the experience is kept separate. People’s interactions with these activities are private and not connected to their account. This means we won’t show recommendations or ads based on their use of these resources. Pinterest also does not track who uses them. All activity is stored anonymously using a third-party service.
This collection of emotional well-being activities will be available to everyone in the U.S. over the coming weeks in our app for iOS and Android (version 7.25). We hope to bring the experience to all Pinners in the future.
Why we’re doing this
People come to Pinterest to discover ideas, get inspired and focus on themselves, their interests, their futures. One of the main ways people find inspiration is through Search, from summer activities to try to creative ways to express yourself.
But we know that life isn’t always so inspiring, and things on the internet aren’t either. According to the Centers for Disease Control, more than 50% of Americans will be diagnosed with a mental illness or disorder at some point in their lifetime.
Real-life feelings and experiences carry over to our lives online. For instance, in the last year there have been millions of searches in the U.S. related to emotional health on Pinterest.
Over the years we’ve worked with experts to make it easy for people in distress to access supportive resources. Together we wanted to create a more compassionate, actionable experience that tries to address a broader emotional spectrum of what Pinners may be looking for.
More to come
This experience is one of the new things we’re trying in our ongoing efforts to make Pinterest an inspiring and welcoming place for everyone. Our goal is to meet people where they are and connect them with tools they can take with them offline and do in their real lives at any time. We will continue to improve the experience, work with more health experts and make these resources available to even more people around the world.
–Annie Ta, Pinner Product Manager