My Postsecret - Part I

Do you follow Postsecret? For those of you who don't know it, it's a website which invites people to send in their secret, anonymously, on a homemade postcard. Every Sunday, a selection are posted, sometimes randomly, sometimes on a theme.

I liked Postsecret better in its early days. Now, it is a phenomenon (isn't that what we call these things?). It's spawned books, and lecture tours, and events at which people occasionally propose to each other - which surely is the definition of being mainstream. It's done a tremendous amount of good. It's become a torch bearer for suicide prevention, raising money and awareness.

I miss its early incarnation, though. When I discovered Postsecret, back in 2007, it mirrored a couple of the elements that I found important in blogging. 

First, the need to share of oneself, and the opportunity to do that anonymously. Postsecret tapped into something that bloggers at that time would recognise: the way the internet can be a place of conspiracy, a place where confessions can be made, a strangely safe place for that. 

Second, the fun, the creativity, that can come with digging up a confession and airing it. Oh yes. The creativity that Postsecret unleashed was striking. The secrets were imaginative - many of them  sad, some thoughtful, some just totally random. I liked the card that read "Why are everyone's secrets on Postsecret so sad? My secret makes me happy!" I love the creativity behind the design of the postcards. Arty, jokey, brash, subtle, rude, startling, beautiful, disturbing... you name it, it's there in a Postsecret postcard. 

I don't like Postsecret in 2013 nearly so much. Now, most of the secrets are about sex. (Why does everything gravitate towards sex, given half a chance?) Many of them are designed to be shocking. Reading the cards used to be like whispering with a friend in the corner of a party, and now it's more like being trapped in a conversation with the party bore. Some of the fun has gone out of it, for me. I still read it, though, for the gems that are still to be found there.

Back in 2007, I made a postcard for Postsecret. I'll tell you about it in my next post. 

PS. Do you prefer this big typeface? Is it easier on the eyes than my previous minuscule one? Is it too big? - and if the answer to that last question is 'yes', then can anyone let me in on the Blogger secret, of how to have a typeface that is between 'normal' and 'large'. It seems like a big jump between the two. 
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