The internet, by definition, is not a private place. In fact the more our lives transcend into the digital realm the less private they become. We post our pictures on Facebook for the world to see, post our thoughts and feelings on blogs for people to comment on and sometime <admit it> play voyeurs and follow other peoples’ lives through the rear window of social networking sites.
Most of us have done our fair share of Facebook snooping; however the Internet (and its perceived anonymity) puts an interesting spin on voyeurism and our need to get a view into embarrassing/shocking/funny details of other peoples’ lives. Websites like FMyLife.com and TextsFromLastNight.com have become extremely popular over the past couple of years (FMyLife.com gets about 1.7Mil. views daily). Technically they are considered to be blogs but instead of content from a single (or few) contributors those sites feature short, self-submitted everyday anecdotes (or text messages) from people’s lives. To be fair, there is a large degree of anonymity; all users have a unique log in and no actual names are released. Here are a few examples of FMyLife.com posts ranging from funny
… to slightly embarrassing…
to heart-wrenching
Another site - TextsFromLastNight.com - operates on a similar principle. The main difference is that instead of everyday stories users can submit text messages they have either sent or received “last night”. Once again, the content is generated, moderated and rated by site users (essentially the only requirement to participate is to sign up). An interesting point about those sites is that we, the groundswell, get to weigh in on what we think of the posts that people submit. Not only do we get to rate them, we get to comment, share with friends on Facebook/Twitter and even moderate what gets posted. And it goes beyond the online realm. Both FMyLife and TextsFromLastNight now have mobile applications and have published books that can be found on sale at virtually any major book retailer <in fact according the to the latest research more users now interact with those sites through mobile apps than actual websites>
A slightly different but no less fascinating example of this phenomenon is Post Secret. PostSecret is an ongoing community mail art project, created by Frank Warren, in which people mail their secrets anonymously on a homemade postcard. Those secrets are then posted on the PostSecret website and/or used for PostSecret's books or museum exhibits.
The site has a comments section which allows users to comment on the posted secrets. Since then the community expanded to include the PostSecret Community (www.postsecretcommunity.com), which now has 80,000 users. The difference between PostSecret and similar “real life” sites is that PostSecret focuses on building the community that empowers the readers to confess about their depression, dreams, stories and experiences AND get support, encouragement and even advice from other users; all that without the fear of being recognized. The PostSecret community has since expanded past the official site and into YouTube, Facebook and Twitter. Additionally both YouTube and Facebook feature multiple unofficial videos from followers around the globe, making it a truly international phenomenon.
As wonderful as the idea sounds it is debatable whether such public sharing truly provides lasting relief, especially in cases of real depression and anguish… arguably it can even be harmful, in cases where someone might be exposed to insensitive or even hostile comments.
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