Pinterest has a new search feature that calms you down when you’re stressed out

Just a heads up, if you buy something through our links, we may get a small share of the sale. It’s one of the ways we keep the lights on here. Click here for more.

With all the vitriol on social media nowadays, Pinterest has often felt like an oasis of calm. Who doesn’t love window shopping or looking for the next pot luck go-to recipe?

Now, it’s going to be even more balming to your overstressed life, with a new “compassionate search” feature that takes those platitudes about stress to another level. Searching for anxiety-related topics will also show resources to help you manage your stress, as well as the usual motivational quotes.

Pinterest is adding ‘compassionate search’ to soothe your stress

This change marks a departure from the risk-mitigation strategy that Pinterest has used in the past. The proactive serving of relevant help information alongside search terms might be just the nudge that some at-risk users need.

• Anxiety-related searches will now also display a box above the stream of pins that says “If you’re feeling sad or stressed, here’s some resources that may improve your mood”
• The content of that box was created in partnership with Brainstorm, a mental health innovation lab at Stanford’s School of Medicine, and two other mental health organizations, Vibrant Emotional Health and the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline
• The tools aren’t tracked by Pinterest, so users can feel safe using them without their actions being used for advertising or other uses

This is a great addition to Pinterest, and shows one way that social media can start taking responsibility for the mess it has made of society. Your move, @jack.

What do you think? Glad to see Pinterest adding these features or do you think they’ll get looked over? Let us know down below in the comments or carry the discussion over to our Twitter or Facebook.

Editors’ Recommendations:

• The FTC just slammed Equifax with a $700M fine for that 2017 data breach
• DoorDash is straight-up ripping off its drivers’ tips
• The Orlando Police is ditching Amazon’s facial recognition tech because it kept fucking up
• Turns out, social media and not video games is why teens are depressed

Joe Rice-Jones

Maker, meme-r, and unabashed geek with nearly half a decade of blogging experience at KnowTechie, SlashGear and XDA Developers. If it runs on electricity (or even if it doesn't), Joe probably has one around his office somewhere, with particular focus in gadgetry and handheld gaming. Shoot him an email at joe@knowtechie.com.