newsonaut

Turning inner space into outer space

May 21, 2014

Whisper reveals the secrets of people in your home town

We humans just can’t help ourselves — we have a fascination for secrets.

An article that promises to reveal the secrets of highly productive people draws us in because we always suspected those productive types were holding back something that the rest of us should know, preventing us from emulating their success.

Or how about secret societies? We see seemingly mediocre people get ahead in their careers while we (who of course are very smart!) languish in the lower ranks. Could it be this state of affairs has been created by a powerful, behind-the-scenes group that controls the economy?

Then there are the personal secrets. They can range from the mundane to the scandalous, but if they’re whispered to us in confidence they seem so much more intriguing.

That’s where an app like Whisper (for iOS and Android) comes in. People from all over the world share an unending stream of things about themselves that you would never know otherwise. And even though you have no idea who these people are, it takes real will power to take a break from reading about them.

The latest update to Whisper brings these secrets closer to home with the ability to sort them by location. How much juicier is it to find out a secret in your home town? Very much.

My home town of Kamloops, with a population of close to 90,000, is large enough to offer some anonymity, but still small enough that you feel like you can get to know the whole place and meet people you know when you go out.

One of the first Kamloops secrets I found was of a surgeon admitting to leaving a sponge in a patient. Sponges can fester and spread infections, so if this really did happen then a patient’s life could be in danger — never mind the lawsuit.

Some secrets are down right charming, although I fear the baby chipmunks may not survive being raised by humans without expertise in this area.

Other secrets can be disturbing. In addition to photo replies such as the one below, you can also reach out with a chat mode. Let’s hope this person receives some support.

And there are some that are so poignant you just don’t know how to respond emotionally.

Of course, Kamloops is no different from any other city in the world. People want to get hooked up.