I’ve been visiting PostSecret for years, and it’s still one of my favorite sites around. Few projects, online or off, suggest such a range of inner life so succinctly. Reading it each Sunday is a ritual of sorts, reminding me that in our weirdly unique differences we are all the same. It’s a little dose of humanity. It always makes me feel less alone.
In some ways, the site is a contradiction. Its mission seems particularly suited to the ethos of a blooming web culture – bringing together strangers to share secrets in an arbitrarily structured way that feels freeing and gives rise to a wealth of expression. From another angle, the whole thing seems oddly old-fashioned – decorating tiny canvasses using scissors and glue, submitting them for publication via snail-mail, and hoping your entry gets lovingly scanned by Frank Warren himself. It’s folk art for the internet age. And I love it.
Douglas Faneuil is the founder of Living Proof Productions, a not-for-profit devoted to suicide prevention based in New York City. He also designs database solutions for companies throughout the Northeast.