Few Internet projects are as impactful as PostSecret, which lets people send anonymous secrets on postcards to a Maryland blogger. DigitalJournal.com spoke to Frank Warren about the one secret he never shared with anyone and PostSecret’s future plans.
Digital Journal — Do any of these secrets resonate with you? “My mom said ‘No more piercings’ so I got one she couldn’t see.” “The real reason I want to adopt is I don’t want stretch marks.” “I burn my father’s porn when he’s not at home.” These confessions, and thousands more, have flooded the website PostSecret, a blog featuring anonymous secrets by people who send postcards to a Germantown, Maryland, address.
Behind the wildly successful PostSecret is Frank Warren, who founded the blog in 2004. The project began as an art exhibition in Washington, DC. Warren printed 3,000 one-sided postcards and invited strangers to share a secret with him. That idea grew into a project where people starting sending Warren thousands of postcards with confessions ranging from explicitly sexual to suicidal to ecstatic.
Today, Warren says he receives more than 1,000 postcards a week, and he posts 20 of his favourites every Sunday on the blog. His website attracts around five million unique visitors every week. Warren has stretched the PostSecret brand to book compilations (four so far), art exhibits (two ongoing right now) and cross-country college campus talks. And there are several offshoots of PostSecret in other languages, including French and Spanish. It seems the public has a not-so-secret love affair with empathetic voyeurism.
PostSecret’s momentum isn’t slowing down in 2008, Warren tells DigitalJournal.com in a phone interview. The site recently won four Webby Awards (the Oscars of the Internet), including Best Cultural/Personal Blog and Best Net Art. PostSecret cards are also being featured in “music video” montages accumulating millions of views on YouTube (see bottom of article).
For example, the Valentine’s Day video features secrets such as “I’ve become embarrassed by how many times I’ve been in love” and “I found someone who loves me even though I have herpes.”
Warren spoke to DigitalJournal.com about what kind of secrets impact him the most, why he doesn’t want to transition to emailed secrets, and about the one hand-delivered note that he never shared with anyone else. Until now.
DigitalJournal.com: What is the main appeal behind PostSecret?
Frank Warren: I think there’s something about these voices that is truly sincere. Maybe it’s voyeurism that keeps people coming back to the website. It’s not uncommon to come across a postcard that really speaks to you and resonates with who you are. It could be a secret you’re hiding from yourself. Or you could feel more empathy with other people, and at the same time discover something new about yourself.
DigitalJournal.com: Social networking and Web forums have become so popular, it’s easy to hide behind a mask. Do you think that’s helped PostSecret gain popularity?
Warren: Young people today are more courageous in what they reveal about themselves. Due to virtual communities, and sites like Facebook and MySpace, I’ve seen a shift in how kids decide what they keep private and what they feel comfortable talking about.
DigitalJournal.com: So is posting a secret on your blog cathartic to people?
Warren: Letting a secret go to stranger allows someone to find solace. It’s the modern equivalent of sharing a secret with a stranger on a train, someone you never see again. I’ve noticed there are two kinds of secrets — ones we keep from others, and ones we keep from ourselves.
DigitalJournal.com: What do you get out of working on PostSecret, which takes up 40 hours of your week?
Warren: I think electronic communities are exciting when they grow organically into organizations without leaders or hierarchy. PostSecret tries to be that vessel so it can become what the community wants it to be. The blog reveals the hidden humour and art we all carry but sometimes hide.
There’s another reason why I do this, and I’m going to share with you something I’ve never told anyone, even my wife. When I was at a college campus doing a talk about PostSecret, showing slides and opening up the floor to students who wanted to share secrets, something special happened. After the talk, a girl handed me a note that said: “I wanted to kill myself but then I saw you were coming. Thank you.” That conveys how it can move people and make a positive difference.
DigitalJournal.com: I’ve heard criticism about sites like yours that wonder why people turn to an impersonal medium for solace. What does it say about us when secrets are so easily revealed anonymously but are often kept from those that should hear them?
Warren: PostSecret is another way to share secrets; it’s not displacing the real-life confessions. Of course, it’s healthy to share them with loved ones in an intimate way. But there’s also cost with that. For example, look at the Mother’s Day secrets I posted. There could be some blowback if those senders shared those secrets with their mothers [one secret states: “I am gay. I am your mother. How long does forgiveness take?”] I like to think of the blog as offering a first step in a much longer journey someone takes.
DigitalJournal.com: You’ve compiled hundreds of secrets into PostSecret books, but does the reading experience differ greatly from viewing the secrets on the website?
Warren: The books are a different way to share secrets. With each PostSecret book, I try to tell a unique story. So the second book had secrets from young people. And another book had a lifetime of secrets from people aged 8 to 80, arranged in chronological order to show how we progress. In the books, I select them and arrange them in cohesion where it reaches a longer story arc, and these are stories told through our secrets.
Every Sunday on the blog, those are living secrets, conveying a deep immediacy as if those are secrets people are dealing with at the moments. I see those secrets as connections with someone who is carrying a great burden.
DigitalJournal.com: In this digital era, why haven’t you transitioned to emailed secrets, which would probably make your — and your mailman’s — life much easier?
Warren: There’s something special about blending an old communication technology like a postcard with the modern tech of a blog. It forces people to make a conscious effort and to choose their words carefully, expressing themselves in meaningful ways. And I love how people stretch their creativity by using intriguing art with their secrets.
DigitalJournal.com: What should PostSecrets fan expect in 2008? Anything on the horizon?
Warren: I’ll continue to look for new ways to share secrets. Maybe that’ll include bringing stories to cable TV or film. I’ll definitely do more travelling on campus colleges, which I find very gratifying.
DigitalJournal.com: Finally, what’s your favourite secret you’ve come across?
Warren: I have a twisted sense of humour, I’m warning you now. Around Christmas time, I got a card wrapped in wrapping paper, all kinds of paper, and the sender wrote this secret on the card: “I hope your stupid wrapping paper collection catches fire and burns down your house.” I can see why the sender didn’t want to say that to a friend!
