How's this for a secret?
Someone out there claims: "Everyone who knew me before 9/11 thinks I'm dead."
Or this, a proclamation of success and independence: "Dear Birth Mother: I have great parents. I've found love. I'm happy."
Welcome to Frank Warren's world. Warren is the creator of PostSecret, a blog that allows people, under the cloak of anonymity, to share their secrets with the world. Scrawl your missive on a postcard and mail it to him, and he posts it on his blog for all the world to see.
The site claims more than 223 million viewers.
The site has gained popularity among the college set. Warren has published four books of the postcards and is now on a college tour talking about the site and its success. He'll be at Duke University's Page Auditorium Wednesday at 7:30 p.m.
The postcards are a lot to process, if in fact they're all real and truthful. Many are sexual, tawdry, profane.
Some are funny - "Sometimes I make myself cry on the drive home to see the reactions of people I drive past."
Some are wistful, sad, depressing or worse - "This St. Patrick's Day will mark three years since you took my virginity. I think it was rape..."
I talked with Warren via e-mail a few days ago. Here are some snippets.
How many postcards a day do you receive? Is it a word-of-mouth thing?
I get about 1,000 postcards every week. The website gets about 5 million hits a month so I think that and the 4 books help with word of mouth.
What does the success of your website say about people and/or society?
Perhaps PostSecret demonstrates how new social groups can start on the web and bring people together in the real world. In some ways, what I try to do at PostSecret Events is bring the openness and support from the PostSecret blog into a real space. I think that is why some of the people who attend PostSecret events feel safe enough to share private and sometimes shocking secrets live in front of their classmates.
Some of the postcards are powerful, creepy, spooky. Do you generally believe what people claim on these, or do you have to take them with a grain of salt?
I think of the postcards more like literature or works of art. And I think when one is talking about self-revelation, questions of veracity get complicated. Some of the secrets may be true and false. Some might be true when they are written but become less so based upon our own choices and actions over time.
