PostSecret IT!!!

PostSecret is an ongoing community mail art project created by Frank Warren, in which people mail their secrets anonymously on a homemade postcard. Select secrets are then posted on the PostSecret website or used for PostSecret's books or museum exhibits.

I was introduced to PostSecret my freshman year of college. My soccer teammate showed me the website and I immediately became hooked. People share intimate secrets of their life anonymously. I noticed that in blogs and comments these secrets impacted people's lives. Other people manage to apply these secrets to their personal lives and overcome so much just from hearing these secrets.

In the book Alone Together by Sherry Turkle, Turkle discusses PostSecret in chapter 12, True Confessions. Turkle says that these confessions are therapeutic because people are getting these thoughts out thus releasing issues that may be burdening them in some way. By people revealing their secrets anonymously, they do not feel they have to be judged, hurt, or criticized for speaking what is on their mind.

As I read Turkle’s Chapter 12, I became intrigued. I started to research why people confessed online instead of to their friends or close family members. Websites then started to pop onto my search screen with thousands of people sharing their personal lives to people they do not even know. Then it made me think. Why do I share secrets with friends? Why do I have to tell someone's secret even though I am not supposed to?

When I share my secrets with others, I want people to relate to what I am going through or feeling. I do not want to feel alone! Sending in secrets to PostSecret or posting anonymous comments allows for people to read other peoples secrets and relate to them. They are able to identify with people and get things off their chest without revealing their shortcomings, faults or mistakes.

One secret that interested me was of a kid who wanted to kill himself for being different. After reading his PostSecret, a person sent in nearly the same PostSecret and wrote that the secret had saved them.

PostSecret is a way for people to interact with others and be heard without people knowing who they are. We can impact people's lives in some ways and PostSecret is a small way to make a difference by providing meaning and understanding of the intimate thoughts that sometimes haunt us.