The Secret app for Android came out recently, I was intrigued so I thought I'd give it a go.
The best way to describe it would be if PostSecret were to create a social network. It consists of short-form posts in a format similar to Twitter, but eschews the traditional social networking concept of a profile and persona in favour of fully anonymous posts. You have a friend list and can see the number of friends (I've got 10 friends on it) but can not tell who the friends actually are. You can't even tell if two posts are by the same person since posts are not associated with a persona. It's such a simple idea that I'm surprised I haven't seen a major implementation of it before.
I feel it detracts from some of the social networking experience. Connecting to people emotionally at a personal level is a core concept of social networking and it's intentionally lost when everything is totally anonymous. A lot of the posts seem to be people complaining about their lives or asking for advice in scenarios that would probably benefit from a more personal mode of communication. I think communication is more than just words; it just feels a lot more natural and easier to connect to someone when they have an identity (even if it is pseudo-anonymous a la LiveJournal and similar sites that don't require real names). Communicating with an abstract entity has a more shallow feeling to it and there's less of a sense of connectedness.
Then again, that may be what some people like. Separating who you are from what you say is an interesting concept in that people are probably more likely to be open if fully anonymous as there's no fear of being judged by people they know. Communication becomes a more abstract concept where there's some sense of belonging without a sense of connection at a personal level. That and you can say things that wouldn't be publicly acceptable.
Have you tried it? What do you think of it?
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