Internet reality show

Every day people think of quirky new ideas for web sites. Usually, the site has a funny little Flash video or a game and the site itself is a one-hit-wonder of the 21st Century. There is invariably not enough bandwidth to go around and the site is laid low in minutes by stampeding hordes of attention span-deprived, insatiable internet users.

To avoid those problems, there are now sites based on much larger servers, like Blogger that don’t go down so easily: not even when they host a huge page filled with 2MB of pictures like PostSecret does. This site encourages people to send in anonymous postcards revealing a secret.

Now, people who don’t know what makes people tick will wonder why this idea takes off while others die. It’s because you get to participate in this experience in a permanent way that other people see. It’s because your artsy ass can bend the awesome powers you honed in ten wasted years of “school”, where you learned how to emote and mimic and you can dump it all out into heartbreaking cluster bombs of ennui that simply smite the soul. Notice how many cards aren’t even postcards, but other materials and the writing isn’t done with a pen, but pasted letters and other media. You just get chills, don’t you?

It’s online masturbation without the mess. What else can explain pathetic pleas for forgiveness, where the submitter is obviously hoping his ex will recognize his handwriting and credit him the chivalry he’s so obviously due. There’s so much pithy, Deepak Chopra-esque crap to choose from, it’s hard to know where to stop pasting links to images.

It’s a site that’s just begging to be bombed with fake postcards, taunting this wellspring of self-pity that others have started. It’s nice to see that someone’s already beaten us to the punch. Even Adbusters seems to have gotten into the act.

The site drives its own artsiness with stories like this one, about the best postcard ever:

“My favorite postcard was lost before it could be displayed. When I pulled it from my mailbox, I noticed that it looked worn and had creases indicating it had been folded into quarters. The card was filled with two vertical lists of grocery items; milk, cheese, chicken, etc. But squeezed into the lower left corner was a revealing admission, “I am still struggling with what I’ve become.”

“Maybe that secret was so difficult to share that the person had tried to use up the card as a grocery list − twice. But part of him or her, perhaps the part that took the invitation in the first place, would not allow the postcard to be used up, thrown away, or lost before the confession was made.”

Another deep, deep thought, almost lost forever. It may sound cruel for me to mock this troubling admission, but don’t forget: this is the Internet, folks! The poster could be lying about the card and could just be making it up entirely. It’s a nice story, maybe the person writing about the writer is a writer. Or maybe the person who sent the card is an artist, looking for exposure. Or maybe none of the cards are real and are all created by the same person.

There are scads of email messages sent by people. Are those real or not? On the Internet(s), you just can’t tell.