The Masks We Wear

I've been frequenting www.five-secrets.com recently and its various offshoots on Twitter and Facebook. The interesting thing about sites like this and PostSecret is that when we're stripped of our superficial identifying marks: names, faces, etc. that we're really all quite similar. People respond to the vulnerability shown on these sites, and I don't think it's purely out of voyeurism.

There are a lot of horrible secrets that get posted, yet so often those things we thought we were alone in can be related to by more people than we would ever have expected. I suppose the same could be said for the entirety of the internet, yet somehow these sites seem to have more truth in them. People drop their masks and are completely real, even if just temporarily because they are anonymous. It's a shame that that kind of honesty and vulnerability are seen so rarely in our personal relationships. We're so often afraid we'll be judged, but judging by the reactions on PostSecret there is a lot more sympathy and understanding for a lot of the things we fear to speak aloud. Why are we so willing to divulge the deepest, darkest part of our selves to someone unknown?

And why is it that sometimes we can relate on such a deeper level to someone anonymous than to the ones that are closest to us? I've been carrying on an anonymous email conversation lately with someone and have discovered that this person is far more akin to myself than I ever would have expected, especially because I have gotten the distinct impression in my life that people like this are rare.