{"id":39,"date":"2018-04-09T23:56:36","date_gmt":"2018-04-10T06:56:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/nogagoldman\/?p=39"},"modified":"2018-04-09T23:56:36","modified_gmt":"2018-04-10T06:56:36","slug":"postsecret-as-a-silenced-archive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/nogagoldman\/2018\/04\/09\/postsecret-as-a-silenced-archive\/","title":{"rendered":"PostSecret As A “Silenced” Archive"},"content":{"rendered":"

PostSecret<\/a> is a website that uploads and displays anonymous postcards that are sent to the website\u2019s headquarters in Maryland. These postcards are normally colourful, and often include images of people or objects. They also incorporate a secret, usually a secret that is brief and compelling. Some secrets are about thoughts or feelings, such as \u201cI hate social media,\u201d while others are about actions, such as \u201cour teachers never gave us gold stars in school, we just made our own\u201d. PostSecret is a form of archive that publicly exhibits and keeps many secrets sent to its headquarters. Although the PostSecret website does not hold all secrets, there is a specific Tumblr account<\/a> dedicated to capturing and publicly displaying secrets that are posted on the original website. As noted by Carter, \u201carchives are filled with voices,\u201d which is evident in this Tumblr account, which holds thousands of voices. These voices are intentionally and anonymously speaking up.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

An issue with PostSecret is that it may not post all of the postcards that it receives. PostSecret has the power to pick and control what secrets it publicly shares, and what secrets stay hidden. By excluding voices from its archives, PostSecret is \u201csilencing\u201d it\u2019s audience (Carter). If certain secrets are excluded from the archive, they will \u201cdisappear from history\u201d and not be heard (Carter 217). I argue that PostSecret is \u201csilencing\u201d it\u2019s audience\u2019s secrets in order for secrets to fit into one of two categories: either \u201cSunday Secrets\u201d or \u201cClassic Secrets\u201d. These two specific categories are consistently posted every Sunday, the day that PostSecret uploads new batches of postcards. Unfortunately, I am unsure of how each secret is selected, and what makes each secret unique enough to fit into either the \u201cSunday Secrets\u201d category or the \u201cClassic Secrets\u201d category. Perhaps the \u201cSunday Secrets\u201d are uncommon secrets, while the \u201cClassic Secrets\u201d are more relatable?<\/span><\/p>\n

PostSecret holds the power to decide which secrets get the honour of being published on their website. Much like other archivists, PostSecret needs to make decisions of which materials to include and exclude, thus automatically silencing individuals who have made a large effort to prepare, create, and send in their secrets (Carter 219). Carter refers to a statement by Verne Harris claiming that archives preserve \u201ca sliver or a sliver of a sliver\u201d of the information they have access to (Carter 221). This concept may apply to PostSecret, as the website normally uploads approximately 35-45 postcards weekly, and most likely receives more in the mail.<\/span><\/p>\n

Through this work of PostSecret as a \u201csilencing\u201d archive, individuals will better understand how \u201csilencing\u201d can be a powerful tool to tell stories through a specific lens, and how PostSecret is biased, and may not acknowledge many of its resources. This concept of the \u201cpower in silence\u201d can be extended beyond archives and serve as a reminder that everyone is inherently biased, and that people can either exaggerate the truth or deliberately \u201csilence\u201d themselves (Carter 215).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Work Cited<\/span><\/p>\n

Carter, Rodney. \u201cOf Things Said and Unsaid: Power, Archival Silences, and Power in Silence.\u201d Archivaria 61,\u00a0<\/em>2006. pp. 215-33. <\/span><\/p>\n

PostSecret<\/em>. WordPress, https:\/\/postsecret.com\/<\/span><\/a>. 9 Apr. 2018.<\/span><\/p>\n

PostSecret Archives. Tumblr,<\/em> http:\/\/psarchives.tumblr.com\/<\/span><\/a>. 9 Apr. 2018.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

PostSecret is a website that uploads and displays anonymous postcards that are sent to the website\u2019s headquarters in Maryland. These postcards are normally colourful, and often include images of people or objects. They also incorporate a secret, usually a secret that is brief and compelling. Some secrets are about thoughts or feelings, such as \u201cI […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":54426,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-39","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/nogagoldman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/nogagoldman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/nogagoldman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/nogagoldman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/54426"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/nogagoldman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/nogagoldman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/nogagoldman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39\/revisions\/40"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/nogagoldman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/nogagoldman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/nogagoldman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}