PostSecret is an ongoing community art project which was begun by Frank Warren. People write a secret on one side of a homemade postcard and then mail it to him. The only rule: reveal anything you want, as long as it is true and you have never shared it with anyone before. Frank has created 4 books, an ongoing Sunday blog, and a traveling exhibit with the 180,000 postcards he has received so far. In addition to these media forms, there are also several video blog compilations of the PostSecret project.
The idea that you are privy to someone else’s secret is what I think most people find intriguing about the PostSecret project. Reading these secrets from people all over the country provides insight into human nature. The contributors to PostSecret come from vastly different geographical, economical, and even cultural backgrounds, but at the same time, they are connected by their vulnerability and their courage. The PostSecret project reminds us that we are not alone; we are connected by our shared hopes, fears, and dreams. The secrets that people send in cover many topics. Some are beautiful, some are brave, some are funny, some are heart wrenching, some are enlightening, some are intimate, and all are interesting.
When I first discovered and started reading PostSecret, it was almost like an addiction. I spent several hours one day reading the entries on the website and watching PostSecret Videos on YouTube. The experience is a lot like watching a movie or reading a book; the secrets you read are funny, sad, and ultimately entertaining. Video blogs are often much more effective than writing at conveying emotion and meaning. Sometimes an author may write an article with a sarcastic tone, but the reader interprets it with a genuine tone and sees the writing as being harsh and mean, when in fact the writer had intended for it to be funny or ironic. The reader cannot hear the author’s tone. Video blogs, on the other hand, can help eliminate this confusion.
Video makes it much easier to portray a certain emotion or idea. Not only can the emotion be seen on a speaker’s face when viewing a video, but other tools can also be employed to shift the emotion of a message to make a blog more compelling or entertaining. Some of the PostSecret videos on YouTube show a slideshow of postcards while different voices (meant to portray the original writers of the secrets) read them. The use of voices has an interesting effect. Sometimes, hearing the secret from a certain gender or age read the secret with a particular tone or emotion in his or her voice can completely shift the sentiment in a secret. You may read a secret in which the writer reflects on his or her life and you picture an eighty year old man sitting in a rocking chair with a smile on his face. However, if you hear the secret read by a seven year old girl, you get a whole different feeling.
When watching one of the PostSecret videos, the background music can also make a big impact. In a video accompanied by The Fray’s “How to Save a Life,” one of the postcards tells a very tragic story, and coupling it with the emotional song nearly made me cry when I saw it. PostSecret almost exclusively uses pathos, an emotional appeal to the audience, to draw them into the work. Sharing the secrets in video format helps us to connect even more with the writer.
You can read or watch someone else’s secret by going to www.postsecretcommunity.com or by searching YouTube for “PostSecret.”
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