I think this topic is more easily explored in an individual way. If some modifications were made to the assignment (along the lines of what was suggested above), students could spend more time on how Pinterest shapes their specific identity by finding patterns among the searches for just the one profile. Then, students would be able to explore on a deeper level what it means to have a specific identity and what consequences (or benefits) might come from an online platform grouping you as someone with X identity.
Overall, I think the project itself is an exploration of digital literacy just in terms of the scraping tools we used. Seeing the data Pinterest collects about each user when we downloaded the profiles was eye-opening, and it really goes to show that there is always more going on behind the scenes than what we're able to see. I wish I could have explored this further in my video, but I felt there was so much going on that I needed to get to that I just couldn't.
Between this and the other assignments, I think the vertical video is easier to adapt for this assignment just because you can use a mobile version of Pinterest, or you can adjust your web page to fill the vertical space. That being said, I think vertical video isn't often used for a reason—it limits space, especially when hosting websites like YouTube and Vimeo have horizontal video as the default (so they just fill the rest of the horizontal space with black, meaning your vertical video is never full screen and utilizing all the space it could be using). I think pushing the boundaries is important, but sometimes breaking the common habit just for the sake of breaking it doesn't accomplish what you had hoped.