Society as Confessor
Offline Has anyone else visited postsecret.com? I have been faithfully looking at it every Sunday, when it is refreshed, for several months. Something that strikes me about the site is how people will write nearly anything for society to gawk at.
First, it speaks to our society's exhibitionist/voyeur tendencies. Second, it seems to indicate the dissolution of the Father Confessor. There was a time that the most heinous secrets could be told to a priest because he was restricted from telling anyone the secret. Now, by sending a postcard, one can accomplish the same cleansing effect without a priest.
Does this indicate that one of the major duties of the clergy is being usurped by anonymity of the Web?
"Tis better to rule in Hell than to serve in Heaven." -Lucifer
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I'd be curious as to the demographics of those confessing and to know what percentage is catholic.
I'd be extremely interesting in knowing the breakdown of male vs female.
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What an interesting website! I love stuff like this.
I suppose you could suggest that the web has taken over the role of 'confessor'. We are allowed so much anonymity on the web. Hell, we can even make up entirely differently lives if we so desired. I think the website is a pretty cool idea regardless.
If god takes life he's an indian giver
Unfortunately, I doubt any statistics exist about the site at all. The entire allure is the anonymity. I suppose a sociologist somewhere could run a parallel experiment. At any rate, the site has a hypnotic holdon me.
"Tis better to rule in Hell than to serve in Heaven." -Lucifer
I think I saw something on 60 Minutes about the original concept awhile back. Someone was writing a book or something and asked for anonymous confessions. They were astounded at all the "postcards" they got. Apparently there are a lot of people out there that want to confess without getting caught.
I doubt if a parallel study would work because the moment the total anonymity is gone, there are probably a lot of folks that wouldn't participate.
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