Frank Warren, founder of PostSecret and the man who knows the secrets of millions of people from all over the world, spoke in Akin Auditorium with a compelling message of the power secrets hold on Jan. 18.
“Secrets are the currency of intimacy,” Warren said. “And by sharing them with those we trust and love, it not only allows us to deepen that channel of intimacy that we share with others, but it gives them permission to tells us one of their true secrets too.”
Warren created PostSecret in November of 2004 by handing out blank postcards to strangers on the streets of Washington D.C.
“When I started the project, I didn’t know why I was doing it,” Warren said. “I was just searching for something fun or meaningful on the side. Later on, looking back at my life, I started it because I needed a place to share my secrets.”
Warren said that his goal for PostSecret was to receive 365 cards, but has now received over a million cards.
“I don’t really plan the future of PostSecret, I just follow where it leads me,” Warren said. “So right now, I still enjoy and take satisfaction in receiving and reading the secrets today as much as I did on day one.”
After the PostSecret website was created, 100 people visited the page. The website then reached 100,000 visitors by its third week.
“Secrets relate to personal relationships because it lets you share your intimacy with others and it brings you closer to each other. Secrets show what that person has been through,“ Maria Caudillo, nursing freshman, said. “You may think they’re living a regular or easy life, but deep down they have a story you may not know about.”
Warren’s collection became so popular that is was featured in the Smithsonian Institution and on shows such as Good Morning America and the Today show.
“It was interesting to learn about a large community, with such an impact on so many others, that I had no idea about. It’s awesome to see it as an outsider. I procrastinate too much to participate myself, but I would like to see what everyone else has to say,” Casey Albrikes, radiology sophomore, said. “In the end, people need to know that it is okay to share their secrets because their secrets are likely to be very similar to someone else’s.”
ADDITIONAL FRANK WARREN QUOTES:
“It [the secrets] is a precious archive and I feel so fortunate that so many strangers trust me with their deepest secrets.”
“Loneliness is a bigger issue in our society than we’re aware of and it [the secrets] certainly makes me aware of it in my own life too. So maybe that is an idea that comes through not just by the content of the secret, but the number of postcards I get from people who feel like there is no other way to share their confession.”
“Probably 1 or 2 percent [of the secrets sent] get posted out of all of them. So it is the ones that really strike my heart as being an original secret or a common secret that affects a lot of people, but is told in a unique way.”
“I have one or two secrets in every book and sometimes I sneak one of my own on my website. The last one that I snuck on the website was one that said, I haven’t told anyone this, ‘I have spent more time downloading meditations apps to my iPhone than using them.'”