The PostSecret blog is a “community art project where people mail-in their secrets on one side of a homemade postcard.” Some are thoughtful, some disturbing, some kinda silly, but almost all are high quality. I think Sarah Boxer’s NYT Arts Review nails why that’s the case:
The Web site gives people simple instructions. Mail your secret anonymously on one side of a 4-by-6-inch postcard that you make yourself. That one constraint is a great sieve. It strains out lazy, impulsive confessors.
For PostSecret, you write, type or paste your secret on a postcard, and then, if you want, decorate the card with drawings or photographs. Next the stamp and then the mailbox. Yes, it’s work to confess. And it should be, if only for the sake of the person who might be listening.
That’s a lesson we need to remember as we design for more and more frictionless communication — sometimes a little friction is exactly what you want. (A special thanks to my dad for the link.)