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I cyber-confess

Posted Thu, May 28, 2009
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I went to a small, rural Catholic school and our priest used to bring a portable confessional and set up in the hallway every other Tuesday. We'd line up to kneel and confess our sins through the little, latticed window, speed through our assigned penance prayers and poof, the slate would be wiped clean for another couple weeks.

The Experience Project is like one big online personal confessional, but instead of confessing that you lied to your parents or took the Lord's name in vain, participants 'cyber-confess' that they're in a sexless marriage, that they're having an affair with a married man or that they've fallen hard for a guy who clearly doesn't feel the same way.

'Some of the things we're dealing with may be stuff we're not particularly proud of and can't talk about it to people close to us for fear of judgment or because they simply won't get it,' says site founder Armen Berjikly, a 29-year-old computer science engineer in San Francisco 'We need to talk to people who've been there that's often more important than even knowing who you're confessing to.'

Unlike social networking sites like Facebook full of party photos and shiny, happy 'friends,' sharing the minutiae of their daily lives, at experienceproject.com personal details are forbidden and privacy is intensely guarded. But Berjikly insists it's not about being secretive as a way of copping out of being honest in your real life but an alternative to bottling things up or living in denial.

Cyber confessors I spoke to said they found the site helpful because it allowed them to 'get certain things off your chest' or 'it helped to relieve stress and release hurtful things from the conscience.'

Being in a sexless marriage was embarrassing for 42-year-old 'Anne.' 'Had I not stumbled upon the website, I probably would be divorced right now,' she says. 'My experience set me on the right path to get counseling and work on my marriage instead of giving up and becoming another statistic.'

'There is great value if you harness technology to be helpful,' says Berjikly, who got the idea for the site helping a friend with Muscular Dystrophy find online support. 'As humans our most challenging experiences are what make us who we are as people and they are what bond us together.'

If you're still not convinced of the power of confession, in two years, the site has grown to millions of monthly users and into a full time job for Berjikly. And that's the truth.

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5 Comments

  • 1. Posted by Roguetheelf24 on Sat, May 30, 2009

    If I were to post what I would really like to get off my chest, alot of people would be in an uproar!

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  • 2. Posted by Roguetheelf24 on Mon, Jun 01, 2009

    Ok here it is. I'm sick of people insulting Christians for their faith, I'm sick of reading the stupid and imature comments on yahoo, I'm sick of variable groups attacking one another over different beliefs in sexuality and marriage as everyone should be entitled to their beliefs and opinions---WITHOUT being attacked physically or verbally, I'm sick of the hostile crap that I've stopped reading on youtube, I'm sick of the media and tabloids attacking anything or anyone who remotely near wholesome, I'm sick of my neighbors who constantly party and fight late at night, I'm sick of the prices on variable items in stores that are being jacked up by a dollar, I'm sick of men who enjoy beating up women and children, I'm sick of getting junkmail for stuff that doesn't interest me, I hate standing in long line ups at the store with parents who can't control their screaming children, I hate being cut off in traffic by rude drivers who think they own the road, when I go jogging I hate it when some people don't pick up the dog mess after their dogs, I find it shocking that some teenagers think they have to be anorexic just to fit into society, I hate some of the images that are portrayed in certain magazines and I won't mention them for legal reasons, I don't believe that I should have to dress in day to day fads just to fit into society as I'll wear whatever the heck I want, I don't believe in plastic surgery as regardless of how many times a person goes under the knife---they WILL get old, I despise animal cruelty, I despise abortion and it is a scientific fact that a fetus at a certain age can feel itself being ripped apart as its being aborted, I refuse to vote for ANY Canadian Politician as I hate politics and oppose Governments--including my own, I hate shoveling my driveway with a shovel in Sub-Zero temperatures in the winter, and now I'm sick of writing of what I'm tired and sick about just to get it off my chest and so now I'll go bake myself a cake. Nuff said.

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  • 3. Posted by paitlann on Tue, Jun 02, 2009

    I Hate Cake ! But I love icing.

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  • 4. Posted by lilgerdie on Tue, Jun 02, 2009

    I think its a great idea that people can have a place to air out whats in their minds. I really hate it when people stand on the walking side of an esclator...its like hello...whats wrong with the right side you know standing side, some of us just wanna walk up the esclator and pretend we are being a bit more fit than you...(ok only me probably).

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  • 5. Posted by Marcelerated on Mon, Jun 15, 2009

    I hate rougetheelf24, but I love paitlann.

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