Postsecret.com

Have a dirty confession you need to spill? Join the club. Cat Grogan investigates the lost art of keeping a secret

Postsecret.com is an Internet phenomenon that has captivated not only the world of cyberspace, but the real world as well. Every week hundreds of cards are sent to 42-year-old Frank Warren’s home address, each depicting a secret that the sender has never shared with anyone else before.

This could be anything from a confession, a regret, a guilty pleasure, an unseen kindness – “sometimes I put money in other people’s parking meters” – to an erotic desire or the admission of an embarrassing memory. Frank then chooses around 20, which he exhibits on the website promptly every Sunday morning. If he isn’t prompt, his inbox quickly jams full of emails demanding an explanation as to why.

Having only started the site in 2004 it now gets an average of 3 million visitors a month. Even if you limit your Internet wanderings to Google for work and Facebook to avoid work, the creator Frank Warren has also branched into other media.

So far he has compiled three books from contributors to the site, and also allowed several of the postcards to be featured in an All American Rejects music video for the song ‘Dirty Little Secret’. He has also put on several gallery exhibitions.

History of a secret

Postsecret.com began when Frank was struggling with an emotional crisis of his own. He started a community art project in his home city of Washington, standing at train stations and handing out blank postcards to strangers which had his address on. He received hundreds of these back, but when it didn’t stop at the ones he had offered out and more began flooding in from all over the USA, he knew he had hit on something amazing.

Now, two years on, the site is winning awards, becoming the subject of round-the-water-cooler conversation, and gaining international recognition. Although the thousands of postcards are still directed to his house mailbox, Frank is now forced to store them in a secure storage space.

At first glance some of the images and messages can be shocking, occasionally crude and, let’s face it, downright depressing: “I was seven years old the first time I attempted suicide.” Anonymity allows for such brutal honesty, and this is a large part of the appeal of the project, both to reader and contributor. Such freedom of expression has obvious limitations in other media such as television.

Apart from a link to a charity named ‘1-800-SUICIDE’, a hotline for people struggling with depression, Frank refuses to allow adverts on the page, thereby suggesting that there are no restrictions on what is published. This gives the website a sense of rawness and exposure which can sometimes be difficult to confront.

However, the secrets are not all sad or dark. many are hopeful, positive or humorous; for example, “I make fun of fat people, but my mum is HUGE!” They are all creative, either in wording or illustration, the designers obviously inspired by the premise of making “the postcard their canvas.” Some are quite detailed works of art.

Criticism

The production of such interesting and unique cards has prompted a few to speculate that Frank actually makes or fakes many of the cards himself. To such criticism Frank, an apparently ‘soft spoken and earnest’ man who is described in his book as “the most trusted stranger in America,” reacts by inviting the sceptics to email him and he will arrange a time for them to visit his house and see the reality for themselves…

Another objection is that what if, especially in the cases of more distressing secrets, people are sending in things that simply aren’t true? Frank admits that there is no way of telling if this happens, so these ‘secrets’ might give a warped impression of our world, when really it’s just someone sitting at home wanting to cause a stir or gain the self gratification of being published on the site.

It occurs to me that the joy I share with millions of others when reading the ‘Sunday secrets’ contains a certain amount of voyeurism. We are looking in on something that we normally shouldn’t be seeing, yet we can’t help but look. These are people’s real lives, and their most personal secrets, yet millions simply read for interest or intrigue.

However, there is more to Postsecret.com than mere nosiness. Firstly, we feel able to personally relate to one or more of the cards. They often convey feelings like “Oh, I thought I was the only deviant that thought/found/did that.”

Sometimes, we are also privy to the delicious realisation that we share a secret with the person who wrote the card.

Award Winning

Postsecret.com won five ‘Bloggies’ in 2006, amounting to a total of £171.36 in Vouchers, a custom-made neck ruff, and ten see-through shoeboxes. Although you never know if neck ruffs are going to make a comeback, it’s not exactly a prize to make a tearful acceptance speech about. The website is also ranked in the top three websites by New York magazine.

While the momentum of Postsecret.com seems to be soaring at the moment, the question must be asked as to when it will all end. Will the Post Office get sick of dumping sacks of mail at Frank’s house? Will Frank Warren return to his document delivery business? More worryingly, will we run out of secrets to tell?

Until people can begin to share their secrets with people they know, I think that it is quite certain that they will continue to seek comfort in sending them to a complete stranger. So, fortunately for those among us who enjoy reading the site every Sunday, Postsecret.com seems certain to continue.