At an event where students were encouraged to let go of their secrets, many walked home with their baggage still floating over their heads.
Whisper, an app which allows users to anonymously share their deepest secrets, planned to host a balloon release Friday at the Let Go With Whisper event on Turlington Plaza.
But with environmental activists protesting the release of the balloons into the atmosphere, students brought their purple balloons with secrets inside home instead.
Some “whispers” on the app range from “I have a crush on my fraternity brother” to “My friends and I take real estate signs at night and put them on other houses.”
Whisper is a “raw view into what really goes on on campus,” said Michelle George, a 21-year-old public relations senior and creator of the event.
“It makes people feel as though they’re not alone,” George said.
The purple balloons symbolized a message in a bottle, she said.
Whisper is a free iOS and Android app. The app allows users to scroll through other people’s anonymous whispers and sends users notifications when someone nearby shares a secret.
George is one of five Whisper campus representatives at UF. The app has representatives at 30 schools across the country and is one of the fastest-growing apps, she said.
George said when she heard about the opportunity to work with Whisper, she jumped at the chance.
“The app, in general, helps people,” she said. “It keeps people connected.”
Kateria Wynn, a 20-year-old advertising junior and Whisper campus representative, said the app helps people express themselves.
The booth attracted 60 people in the first two hours, Wynn said.
Upon seeing the booth, Genevieve Hyppolite, a 19-year-old microbiology sophomore, said, “Oh, Whisper! I love that!”
She said she likes the app because it is funny, and “people can get stuff off their chests.”
She has been using Whisper since the Fall of 2012.
Although the balloons were not released, Hyppolite said she “still felt good writing it down.”
A version of this story ran on page 8 on 9/30/2013 under the headline "Students can’t escape secrets"
