PostSecret, a blog sharing anonymous postcards emblazoned with the senders' secrets, was the original, analog Whisper -- and a form of Whisper incapable of tracking users via digital trickery, an accusation that has been leveled at the secret-sharing app. In an age when it's becoming clear how difficult it is to maintain our privacy, especially in the online world where we increasingly spend our time, the old-fashioned anonymity of PostSecret seems all the more appealing. Hackers and unscrupulous corporations may be able to crack our passwords and leak our apparently hidden personal info, but who can reveal the sender of an unsigned postcard?
There's no better time, then, for a new book from Frank Warren, the creator of PostSecret. The World of PostSecret collects hundreds of postcard secrets -- and a glimpse into PostSecret's own brief dalliance with having an app. "Anonymity," Warren said, "worked on the PostSecret website but proved to be the Achilles' heel for the app." Though the book highlights a number of poignant secrets from the app, the postcards remain the stars of the show. The hand-scrawled notes, doodles, and carefully chosen background images seem to carry as much meaning as the words themselves.
In the book, Warren himself divulges one or two secrets from over the years that were actually his own -- but it's comforting to know that the rest of the secrets are safe with PostSecret.
We've excerpted several secrets from The World of PostSecret, including a few that capture the secret lives of bookworms:
All images copyright © Frank Warren. Excerpted with permission from The World of PostSecret (William Morrow).