For those of you who don’t know, the whisper app is a sort of social media site that lets you post anonymous little memes about anything you’d like. You can heart, reply with a whisper, and chat in response to other people’s whispers. 

Well, I thought I’d try it out. 

I joined because I wanted to join a PTSD group. Which actually was a fairly positive experience. I chatted with a couple people, and it felt promising. 

Well, the cons outweigh the pros unfortunately. 

In only two days of using the app I was sexually harassed in a chat (in response to a completely unrelated whisper.) I was also called a “fat b***” in a whisper conversation I’d replied to about eating disorders. Yep. Pretty much sums it up. 

(My response was great though. I was like “my body made a human being so I’m just fine thanks!”) 

Not to mention the horribly mean things I saw in reply to others. My heart just ached for some of those poor people who had to read the garbage directed at them. 

And it would of course get me all hyped up, and I would try and come to their defense, and then (of course) it would backfire back at me. 

Oh, and in two days, 11 people started a chat with me. 

And all 11 of them were from males. 

Sure, a couple of them were just really nice supportive peeps commenting in response to something I’d “whispered” in the PTSD group, but seriously, ALL 11 chats from men?? It cannot be coincidence that only guys were interested in starting a chat with me –a female.

So why is this harrassment and bullying so much worse than other social media mediums? I mean, in TWO DAYS I got these responses. And I only posted 2 things. And one of those posts was this: 

 I post way more than that on my Facebook and never get this kind of hype. 

So why? 

Anonymity. It’s powerful people. 

And to be honest, I was also probably a little more blunt than I would’ve been had my name accompanied my whispers. Especially in that eating disorders conversation… I mean what kind of person??? Anyway, not proud of it. 

The same thing that makes Whisper attractive to people like me (who just want to talk with other people about similar life struggles; who may not have access to an in-person support group) is the thing that makes it so ineffective as a good place to vent or confide. 

Well, I’ll be deleting my Whisper. To delete you have to email the support team. My guess is they’ll come back and try to “solve my issues” first, but hopefully soon I’ll be “Whisper free” again… 

I guess the lesson here is that secrets really don’t make friends. 

I’ll be sticking to my Facebook PTSD support group. Where a name and a face to your comments makes human interaction that much more polite.