The Keeper of Postsecrets
Frank Warren reveals the secrets behind the popular postcard blog.
By Ali M. Latifi
January 16, 2008
Frank Warren looks through the more than 1,000 postcards he receives per week.If you happened to be on the streets of Washington D.C. in 2004 you may have encountered a man handing out postcards and asking people to write down one true secret that they had never before revealed. You wouldn’t have known it then, but that man was Frank Warren, the founder of the now highly successful blog and cultural phenomenon PostSecret. Today, Warren receives over 1,000 postcards a week, which he posts on his website, PostSecret.blogspot.com. Warren has published four books of collected secrets (the latest, The Secret Lives of Men and Women, was released in October) and speaks at college campuses around the country.
Recently, Campus Progress spoke with Warren about soldiers who play video games in Iraq, the Internet’s potential for creating social change, and how our secrets can lead us to creating a more peaceful and harmonious world.
What exactly is PostSecret?
It’s a project I started three years ago. I printed up several thousand post cards inviting strangers to share something that was true that they had never told anyone. I passed them out on the streets of Washington, D.C.—what better place to solicit secrets from strangers? And slowly secrets began to find their way to my mailbox. It was just a trickle at first, but then the idea of PostSecret seemed to spread virally. People from all over began to buy their own postcards, or make them, and mail them in with their own secrets. I’ve long since stopped passing out the postcards, but I continue to get about a thousand secrets every week from all around the world. I’ve received them from Afghanistan, Abu Dhabi, Brazil, Hong Kong, and Vietnam
You’ve received some postcards from war zones. Are those secrets any different? Do they tell you anything new about the conflicts?
What’s interesting are some of the secrets coming from Iraq and Afghanistan, which express views and ideas and hopes and fears from soldiers—American soldiers typically—that you don’t normally hear in the media. It’s the same thing with their girlfriends and wives and boyfriends here in the states, so I think PostSecret can be really powerful in the way that they it allows these voices that aren’t typically heard to be expressed and communicate.
I remember one postcard—presumably sent in from a soldier—that depicted a soldier’s view out of a pair of night vision goggles. The caption read “MOST AMERICANS AREN’T WORTH THE FIGHT!” I thought that was so incredibly telling.
The latest PostSecret book was called A Lifetime of Secrets and there’s one in that book that says, “I think that Americans are indulgent and lazy, but I would go to war and die to protect America,” which showed the contradiction some soldiers face and how they deal with it. Another secret that came from Iraq had a picture of three guys playing video games and said, “This is all I’ve done so far ever since I’ve been here”
What do you think motivates people to share these secrets online where they can be seen by so many people and read in books sold throughout the world?
I make sure everybody knows in advance how their secret can be used. I certainly wouldn’t want to surprise anybody like that. On the website I tell people not to send their secrets in if they don’t want them shared. I think people mail in secrets for many different reasons. I think some people want to share a funny story or talk about a sexual taboo. But other people, if you look at the postcards, you can see the time and effort that went into them.
Right, they are very creative.
I think those folks might be looking for something more. Maybe they’re searching for a greater sense of authenticity or looking for grace or trying to understand or accept something about themselves that’s been troubling them.
PostSecret is one of the only sites I know of that merges the Internet with the analog, paper world. Are there other, similar sites out there?
I do think there is something special about the project linking this old form of communication with this very modern form. And I think there are many thousands of other ideas as good as PostSecret—or better—just waiting for the next person to take advantage of—some new communication technology to expose the humor, the art, the beauty in our everyday lives that often go undiscovered.
With all the possible identities a person can create online, do you think it is possible to remain truly anonymous or keep anything private?
I think there’s a generational difference between how our parents feel about secrets and how we feel about secrets. I think that’s reflected on MySpace and Facebook and other places where people are revealing parts of their lives that their parents would have hidden. PostSecret is an example of that, too. I think it’s important to protect people’s anonymity so they feel freer to share those feelings, thoughts, and ideas in a non-judgmental way. So hopefully through PostSecret you’re able to see even deeper feelings revealed.
Do you ever see yourself collecting all your political secrets, presenting them to Capitol Hill, and saying, “This is what America thinks!”?
Not in that sense, but I do see certain patterns and trends of the secrets I receive every day, and I feel very motivated on some issues. So I might take further action some day based upon the secrets and the volunteer work that I’ve done. The National Suicide Prevention Hotline, for instance.
Did that come as a result of PostSecret, because there have been a lot of secrets about depression and possible suicide attempts?
I was a volunteer at the hotline before PostSecret so I know the good work that they do. But when PostSecret started getting really popular I wanted to do something productive and important with all the attention it was getting, and that was when I started promoting the hotline number on the website.
Any last words for the Campus Progress audience?
I would say that the project has shown me that all of us have a secret that would break your heart if you knew it. If we could remember that about each other I think there would be more understanding and compassion and maybe more peace in the world.
Ali M. Latifi is the Special Assistant to the Senior Vice President of Online Communications at the Center for American Progress. He graduated from the University of California at Santa Cruz in 2007.
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I love the books this guy puts together. Great concept…
— Saxon Baird - Jan 17, 03:27 PM - #I have all of his books. I love the concept! I’ve told everyone about it. Humans are awesome!!!
— Human Being - Jan 19, 04:12 PM - #