This may be old news to many of you, but I can't stop thinking about it.
Granted, there is some cheesy stuff on here, a lot of "I'm ok, you're ok," etc. But beyond that -- what does postsecret do for people? Is it the feeling of true anonymity which the internet can no longer give? Is it purgation?
It would be easy for someone to compare this to a religious confessional, but that would be wrong. The good catholic goes to the confessional to escape punishment from a God who already knows what he or she has done. That is, catholicism utilizes a panoptic reality. Postsecret is a way to escape and then reenter the social milieu. It takes that which is truly hidden from public discourse and then hands it over to that same social structure. On postsecret, one reveals that which is invisible. And, according to many of the comments, it makes people feel better. Why? Because it is spoken? Because others can look at it and say "you're not that bad"? (Which, incidentally, is not always a healthy excercise, in my mind.)
I can't help but think that this is an example of the "real" invading the "virtual." Material objects are created with real hands to express authentic emotions in a way that the virtual cannot.
So here's the question: would you post a secret?
Posted by pjaussen at August 11, 2005 03:18 PM | TrackBackI have been reading Postsecret for sometime, it facinates me but I am not sure what I think about it. I don't think I would ever send a secret in, but then I have real people I would trust enough to tell any secrets I needed to tell. I can see how maybe it would be healing or theraputic just to write it down.
Posted by: jlg at August 15, 2005 10:51 AM