I know some bloggers who blog anonymously, or sometimes under a pseudonym. This is usually done for various reasons, including personal security (afraid of stalkers, eh?), job security (the boss might be into blogs, and might read the crap you write about him), or sometimes even just to be able to express things you won’t normally want to be attributed to yourself. Anonymous blogging can be liberating, especially since you can say what you want to say without having to worry about what other people will think about you.
What if you broaden the concept of anonymous blogging, and turn it into a whole social network where everyone is writing under an alter ego? This is just what Hidden Lives is all about. It is a “space to reflect on your innermost thoughts, dreams, hopes, fears and imaginings.” It is a place where you reveal your inner self, and also discover other people’s inner selves.
Hidden Lives is a social experiment dabbling in the realms of authentic expression and intimate revelation.
When people have the opportunity and courage to share their hidden lives, it is a powerful reminder that, for everything that separates us, we are all intimately connected.
Hidden Lives focuses more on short bursts of thought rather than longer posts, which many personal rant- and rave-oriented bloggers are fond of. The front page is like a mosaic, and each entry is like a postcard.
The aesthetic of the website revolves around the concept of windows into the soul. People’s hidden lives are represented in a vast collection of windows. As you hover over a window, it lights up with a hint to its contents, inviting you to explore deeper into the person’s soul.
You can explore the hidden lives of people from around the world in a myriad of ways. The home page presents a random assortment of entries and you can also view entries by specific categories and countries while also sorting entries by most recent, most votes, age and screen name. Play around and see what lives are unveiled.
Each unveiling is initiated by a randomly-generated phrase, which you would then have to complete, or change until you find something suitable for the mood you’re currently in, or the idea you want to express at that particular moment. Examples are:
- My life changed the moment …
- I wish the world was …
- When I’m alone, I …
- Love is …
- Freedom is …
And there are all sorts of interesting statements you can unveil yourself with.
Hidden Lives members can also vote for the entries made by other people, DIGG-fashion, and these are called appreciations. One thing missing though, in my opinion, is a means to make friends with other members. But I’m not so sure if that will be relevant in this case, since you’re all anonymous, anyway. Still, I’d like to see some RSS-type subscription mechanism, where you can subscribe to members’ unveilings, or better yet, a system wherein you can see the unveilings of a member’s friends.
Hidden Lives is a project by ideogeny.
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