Is the Whisper app too loud?
Whisper is a new app that lets people anonymously confess their secrets by enabling users to post a short statement on a unique photo backdrop.
The posts are not memes, but they are displayed in the same way. For example, “She’s guilty in my eyes” on a backdrop of Casey Anthony. Basically, it’s a simple and quick way to anonymously communicate ideas through words and images.
The app is intended to help users get things off of their chest, and even facilitate conversation between members via private chat. But while the application is most commonly an outlet for secrets like, “I’m that innocent girl whose secretly a nympho,” it has also been a medium for users to point out not-so-secret secrets, like these:
“I love my granny panties. I’m 25.”
“Anybody else totally turned off by messed up teeth?”
“I don’t feel pretty without makeup”
Then there are whispers that are simply unpopular opinions:
“I think interracial couples are gross.”
Users can then respond with their own photo and text combination, like “you’re stupid” with a picture of a banana.
Users can navigate whispers by filters for the most popular, most recent , and nearby.
These were within one mile of Dyson Lab:
“She traded two yrs. of commitment for one night of sex”
“Jock straps are sexy”
“Message me for pics;]” (the backdrop is very Anthony Weiner-ish)
If they pay a fee, users can also private chat each other. The rates are one month for $5.99, three months for $4 per month and six months for $2.83 per month. But paying for apps, especially in monthly payments, is not very popular.
This private messaging is tailored to introduce members to each other. And with all the look-at-my-bod-let’s-hook-up pictures, the app’s hook up scene seems pretty big. For instance, there will be a photo of a man’s six-pack asking for horny women to contact him — a few days ago the most popular whisper was someone saying they were sleeping with a user they met through the app. These kinds of whispers usually have a lot of responses and hearts, similar to “liking” a post on Facebook or Tumblr.
Whisper is similar to “PostSecret,” a website that describes itself as “an ongoing community art project where people mail in their secrets anonymously on one side of a homemade postcard.” However, PostSecret users cannot private chat.
PostSecret developed an application that launched September 2011, but closed before the end of that year due to malicious and uncontrollable submissions. Whisper is also experiencing the same questionable content; scrolling through the posts, it doesn’t take long to find one with a sexually explicit image or text.
Whisper facilitates communication between confessors. PostSecret does not, but does sell books of collected submissions.
Either way, a user needs to pay to get the full experience from both platforms, although the platforms are being used inconsistently despite their intent.
