A high school crush. A little white lie. We all have secrets we'd like to unload. But admitting them face to face isn't always easy. Now, there's a way to get confessions off your chest without giving up your identity. In a News 11 Special Report, Chrys Peterson showed you how to "fess up" online.
Heather Lissor has a confession to make. She wants to know your deep, dark secrets. She explained, "There is an element of wanting to know someone else's business and just being amazed at what another person's life is like." To get the scoop, she logs on to a special website where visitors post their sins and fears for others to read and respond. Lissor said, "I'm a nosey person. I check the website everyday."
Think of it as a cyber confession booth. And you can now find them scattered across the net on sites like GroupHug.us, True Military Wives Confessions, I've screwed.com and Daily Confession.
Greg Fox of DailyConfession.com said, "This is literally the car wreck on the side of the road that you can't help but look at as you go by." Fox is the creator of DailyConfession.com. He receives close to 300 e-mails every day from all ages and all walks of life. He explains, "There are all kinds of things that people confess to. Theft at work, theft from their spouses, fear of things that go bump in the night. A lot of them are about adultery."
While these intimate secrets are now public, confession site visitors remain a mystery. Psychologist Larry Rosen says it's self help combined with a bit of entertainment. Rosen, who authored "Me, MySpace and I" said, "These sites are extremely addictive the same way that reality shows are addictive. We like to look at what other people do wrong or where they make mistakes."
Still, he believes confessing online does have its benefits. "You can put on there exactly what you did wrong, why you think it was wrong, and then what happens is you get it out of your brain and onto the Internet and you feel better."
But there is a downside. Many sites allow you to leave feedback for others, and sometimes that feedback is brutal. Heather says when it comes to things like cheating, name calling isn't unusual, though she avoids it. Lissor said, "What makes me respond is if I see someone struggling with something, and I think I can offer a good piece of advice."
Creator Greg Fox says it's the good advice that keeps people coming back for more. "A lot of people write me and say, 'You know, now that I've come to your website, now that I've read about the things that happen to other people, I don't feel so bad about my life.'"
Lissor agrees. She likes logging on to Daily Confession and thinks of it as a mini-support group. "I think a lot of people can find comfort in the fact that they're not the only weird ones in the world, you know. Everyone has their bizarre secrets. "
Each of these sites is free to use. In most cases, you'll only need to create a user name in order to leave feedback.
