Some see the Web site as an exercise in self-indulgence. Others look at the postcards for art or entertainment.
Still others see www.postsecrets.com as a gratifying and therapeutic venue for self-expression — a Web site that displays scanned copies of homemade postcards with secrets on them that people send in anonymously.
The site, described as “an ongoing community art project,” was started by Frank Warren in November 2004 and has since gained enormous popularity. According to www.technorati.com, a site that follows trends in blogging, PostSecret is now the third-most popular blog based on the number of links to it on other Web sites. And a recently published book, “PostSecret: Extraordinary Confessions from Ordinary Lives,” has a collection of hundreds of new and old postcards.
Warren, who lives in Maryland, said that the site, which has “been growing phenomenally,” receives postcards from people of every age group, race, gender and sexual orientation.
“Secrets are something that are ubiquitous, everybody has them,” he said. “It’s what separates us from the animals.”
And while many send in secrets as a form of catharsis, Warren notes that for others the visit to the site is more “vicarious,” and can serve as “a gateway to get the courage … to express themselves.”
The Web site features a variety of funny or depressing postcards, ranging from one that reads “I don’t care about recycling. (but I pretend I do)” to “I started shooting heroin again.”
Binghamton University freshman Christina Lam, who reads PostSecrets every Sunday when the site is updated, agrees that it serves two functions.
“Society is so judgmental that it becomes difficult for people to just let things out,” she said, adding that there are benefits to readers as well. “It sort of lets them see that they’re not alone.”
This sense of identification could lead to the formation of “subculture groups,” said one male social science graduate student, who preferred to remain anonymous.
“It could create a sense of belonging to a smaller social culture, which could be positive or negative,” he said, citing Web sites that promote anorexia, and others that offer help to those suffering from the disease. Expressive disclosure, which Web sites like PostSecret promote, are common forms of therapy echoed by diaries or other forms of artistic expression.
Warren, however, said that the goal of the project was never to be a substitute for legitimate forms of therapy, and that it more commonly acts as a catalyst for those who were looking to seek treatment.
Professor Ann Merriwether, who specializes in developmental psychology, noted that for those who visit PostSecret regularly, the addictive effect of the site could be related to “just enjoying the thrill of the gossip.”
Though Warren said that he does not archive old postcards on his Web site, a Google.com image search has a large collection of past postings, which many have admitted to spending hours looking at. For many college students, this echoes the phenomena of Web sites like Facebook.com and myspace.com.
“It’s the secret thing, that you know something really intimate about somebody else,” Merriwether said. “And some of these are really, really intimate,” she said, referring to one postcard with a picture of a baby on it that reads “I told my boyfriend (now husband) I was on the [birth-control] pill …”
Merriwether also raised concerns over impressionable adolescents forming an identity through “identity diffusion” and reading some of the more striking submissions, like one that reads, “I finally realize … I’m not special,” and another: “When I screw up it’s just ‘cause I suck.”
But Lam, who has not yet declared a major but is interested in psychology, said that besides being interested in the secrets and the art on the postcards, she is drawn to the concept of the project itself.
“I really like it because it just gives you something to relate to,” she said, “even if you have no idea how that person is feeling because sometimes some of the postcards are really extreme.”