Deep, dark secrets are not an aspect of life that came to age with 21st century technology. However, through the modern medium of the World Wide Web, there has been a new cultural phenomenon called “PostSecret,” which provides people a window to anonymously share their secrets. This phenomenon began in 2005 when Frank Warren initiated an art project that welcomed people to anonymously mail him their secrets on postcards. Since 2005, on every Sunday Warren has released new batches of secrets so that the PostSecret Community is able to go online and view other people’s secrets. While I argue that this community does not have a finite amount of community members, there is clear evidence of its great following.
The evidence of its follow is shown …show more content…
One of these characteristic within the community is that members seek the specific chat portion of this website as a place to connect with others who may share struggles that they do not feel as if they can reveal in more traditional ways. Through such, members can be identified as “practitioners” as they are coming together to build comfort and a safe space around topics that society may mute. As the community expands, participants are able to conceptualize the rules and norms by clicking on the “PostSecret Community Terms and Services.” The terms and service walks new members through posting norms. (I expand upon how these rules and norms aid in apprenticing new members in relation to the literacy practices later on in the paper.) Additionally, members are often welcomed to introduce themselves in the chats. For …show more content…
This is an additional characteristic that constitutes this website as an online community. One shared value embraced throughout the community is the notion of safety in exposing secrets. This provides a great sense of power for users as this community platform welcomes people to exposing aspects of their life that could potentially be shamed by society. This is especially emphasized as the PostSecret Interactive Community has subcategories of secrets/chats, which are specific to topics that are often considered taboo such as mental health. As people are able to read secrets, and then able to connect with people who have a like secret as them, an additional shared value is the sense of normalcy without
The evidence of its follow is shown …show more content…
One of these characteristic within the community is that members seek the specific chat portion of this website as a place to connect with others who may share struggles that they do not feel as if they can reveal in more traditional ways. Through such, members can be identified as “practitioners” as they are coming together to build comfort and a safe space around topics that society may mute. As the community expands, participants are able to conceptualize the rules and norms by clicking on the “PostSecret Community Terms and Services.” The terms and service walks new members through posting norms. (I expand upon how these rules and norms aid in apprenticing new members in relation to the literacy practices later on in the paper.) Additionally, members are often welcomed to introduce themselves in the chats. For …show more content…
This is an additional characteristic that constitutes this website as an online community. One shared value embraced throughout the community is the notion of safety in exposing secrets. This provides a great sense of power for users as this community platform welcomes people to exposing aspects of their life that could potentially be shamed by society. This is especially emphasized as the PostSecret Interactive Community has subcategories of secrets/chats, which are specific to topics that are often considered taboo such as mental health. As people are able to read secrets, and then able to connect with people who have a like secret as them, an additional shared value is the sense of normalcy without