The saying goes, “secrets, secrets are no fun, unless you share with everyone.” Well, a new app allows you to do just that — share your secrets with everyone — completely anonymously.
“Be yourself. Secret is a space to openly share what you’re thinking and feeling with your friends. Speak freely, share anything.”
Those are the words that grace a fairly new app’s website. It is called “Secret.”
Secret is kind of like Facebook and Snapchat combined. Users post secrets, but there is absolutely no identification attached to them. Other users can “heart” and comment on these secrets, but those are anonymous as well. The app automatically adds people according to his or her contacts, so the user is not completely sure just who is telling secrets on the feed. This app is gaining popularity and, according to Forbes magazine, is ‘blowing up’ in places such as San Francisco, so is Raleigh next?
I like the concept of this new app because sometimes people are afraid to post their true feelings on social media due to the fact that they want to please their friends or maintain a certain image (though I feel keeping up an image is ridiculous, but that is beside the point).
Secret allows users to spill their guts on a public forum without spoiling their reputation. This is also a good concept because it allows users to comment on posts anonymously and provide support for the secret-teller.
But on the flip side, Secretcan easily be used for evil. If you have ever seen the movie Mean Girls, you know that gossip spreads like wildfire. If Secret gets going, I feel like every other post will be “Sally is sleeping with Johnny” or “Johnny is cheating on Peggy with Sally” or “Peggy is a loser.” And with the posts being anonymous, there could be zero truth to a post, but the person who posts it won’t receive any repercussions.
This could be a major problem.
Cyber-bullying is already a problem in the United States. According to bullyingstatistics.org, the i-SAFE foundation found that “more than one in three young people have experienced cyberthreats” and “over half of adolescents and teens have bullied online, and about the same number have engaged in cyber bullying.”
Secret will only increase these horrifying statistics. A lot of the time, bullies will hold back on what they say or don’t say anything at all via the Internet because they are afraid they will get in trouble. Well, with this app there is no possible way of proving that the bully made the nasty comments, which could cause the person being bullied to feel helpless.
I wish apps such as this could be used strictly for fun because personally I love knowing other people’s secrets — it’s thrilling — but unfortunately it can’t in the world we live in now.
Who knows? Maybe Secret will gain popularity without any major scandals, or maybe it will be just our little secret—but only time will tell.
