Is anybody listening? Yes.
Remember the clever rhyme secrets secrets are no fun, secrets are for everyone? Do you remember the seething rage you felt when you retorted, "Nay! Secrets are NOT for everyone by the very definition of the word! If secrets were for everyone they would not be secrets but mere public confessions or conversati.onal snippets!" Admit you wanted to smack the nosy priss from elementary school who nah-nah-nah-nah-nah'd her way into your personal space by demanding you share your deepest secrets. Fortunately you had already crossed your heart and hope to die stick a needle in your eye and pinkie sweared that no one would find out about that time you drew a heart around Tommy's picture in the yearbook. Of course, there was always that one category of secret, the one you told all your closest friends knowing that one of them would let it slip into the public sphere. Everyone has had that one secret that was really a confession contained in a plastic wrapper of feigned secrecy. Everyone has a secret they want the world to know.
The desire to know other people's secrets is an addiction that, until now, was hard to satiate. This desire can often be channeled into people watching, eavesdropping, and the high art form of stalking. Lucky for people like me with extremely voyeuristic tendencies, the Internet has become a portal to a new level of people watching, and even a forum for random strangers' deepest, darkest, and most shameful secrets. A veritable Rear Window for the masses, if you will.
The first website I ever encountered that changed the direction of the wave of my web surfing was Postsecret.com. The concept is simple in design. Readers are asked to anonymously send in a 4 x 6 postcard with a secret that they have never confessed before to the listed address. The result is a mélange ranging from the harmless "I love getting my period... It gives me an excuse to be bitchy and irritable and to take naps" to the shocking and heartbreaking, "I think more than usual about killing myself after I have a really on good day." Although the posted secrets can't possibly be checked for reliability, there is no lack of readability as it's impossible to read just one. There's something about this small glimpse into another person's sense of guilt, dreams, regrets, despairs, confessions, and small pleasures that is completely absorbing. Voyeurism never felt so good.
Then of course, there are websites that fall into a grey area. Sites like overheardin-newyork.com and overheardintheoffice.com offer a chance for you to get involved in making another's comments part of the public domain. These fairly self-explanatory websites are an eavesdropper's wet dream, a place where their remarkable findings from both the office and "The City" can be shared with millions. I would say it's hard to believe that people actually say such things, but fact is it's not. Akin to the postcards, the overheard portions of these conversations are often hilarious, whether it's because of the incredible ignorance of the speaker, or, well, you'll just have to see for yourself. Check out one recent entry: "Hobo: Got any money, man? I'm hungry._ Guy: Hey, how are you? _Hobo: How am I? How the fuck do you think I am, 50 fuckin' people walked by and how much do I got? 10 fuckin cents, how the fuck am I. Shit, man. 'How the fuck are you?' What kind of question is that? I'm fuckin' homeless." I couldn't have said it better myself.
One of the most enticing things about this new medium of entertainment is the fact that you can come out of reading the worst confessions and still feel guilt free. After all, they're the one who chose to share it on the Internet. It's not like stalking right? You don't actually know the people who say or do these things and chances are you never will. The days of sticking binoculars through closed blinds are over. No more need for that commando helmet or those night-vision goggles you invested in.
No matter what type of voyeur you are, there is a website tailor-made to fit your people watching needs. If you're into reading the grossest most obscene and morally low things strangers have ever done, check out lowbrow.com. Some entries are less reprehensible than others, but there are a few that will make you look away from your screen in disgust. Keep in mind, there are no pictures on this site. As much as I hate to have to settle for reading livejournals, blogs, and Facebook profiles to spy on the Yale community, I'm sure it's only a matter of time before someone has a genius idea like say, oh, I don't know, overheardinthe-ivyleague.com. If that comes to fruition, I will be ruined.
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