I’ve just loaded StumbleUpon on FireFox. StumbleUpon is an FireFox extension that shows up the menu bar; when one clicks on Stumble!, a website loads and one can vote thumb up or thumb down. So far, almost all the site StumbleUpon has proposed have been fantastic (I wonder how it knows so much about me; should I worry?).
First I visited 3 or 4 photography sites, with stunning photos. Then I watched the online version of More, the six-minute short that was nominated for the Oscars in 1999 (I had not seen it; it’s definitely worth watching).
Finally, I landed on PostSecret. I had heard about this site on NPR a couple of months ago, but I had not had a chance to visit it. It’s heartbreaking. Reading the anonymous postcards revealing secrets it’s like seeing naked bodies of strangers, in all their vulnerability, imperfection, and blinding humanity. You want to look away and at the same time you want to look right at them. It’s like reading a message in a bottle. You connect with the person who wrote them even if you don’t know anything about them.
Just this evening I was thinking how the blogs I like and read are those that reveal some of the human, imperfect aspects of their authors, rather than just presenting neat lists of interesting facts and news, or smart commentaries on business, Internet, and technology. Even in cyberspace, I crave for confessions and introspection.