Tired of the loud and public nature of Facebook, younger people are flocking in droves to Whisper, a social network where you can post your innermost feelings without mother reading your posts.

The only way you can Whisper is to download the free app that is available for the iPhone and all Android phones. Those on a BlackBerry or on Windows phones will have to wait.

Once you download the app you pour out your angst in a few words. The app finds a matching picture to go with your message. It is then posted and shared anonymously. Someone reads it and empathises by floating a heart. Someone else writes a comment. You reply. It develops into a conversation. It all sounds like another version of Facebook except for one thing. Where Facebook is transparent here you are absolutely anonymous as long as you choose to remain so. It follows that you can be totally frank and pour out your true feelings instead of embellishing your image.

This app is really addictive. I have been hooked ever since I discovered it. According to Whisper, it handles more than 20 posts per second. Every month, it has more than 3 billion page views. The average user also opens the mobile app more than 10 times a day.

It has become hugely popular because its takes you back into the old days of the Internet when anonymity, not identity, was the norm. The youth are moving away from Facebook because they say that is where their mothers hang out these days. That is true. Facebook has become popular among older people where they can connect with long lost friends and relatives. And you cannot be totally candid when you know that your father or mother will read your posts. To some extent this is true for Twitter as well.

Another reason for the declining popularity of Facebook is that it is an extension of what is happening around you. Imagine posting pictures and comments of a wedding reception you have attended. Or writing a post about a game which all of you watched on TV. It can become boring so people want to move on. Alternative media such as Instagram seems to be as popular as ever. SnapChat, where your messages and photographs and videos disappear after sometime, has become a rage along with WhatsApp.

People are also suffering from self-presentation fatigue. It is tiring to be what people want you to be and you end up being superficial and unreal. Whisper on the other hand gives you the opportunity to be the real you. Unlike the positive and upbeat image you present in Facebook, the mood here is often quite melancholic and pensive. So you will see posts on a relationship gone sour, the trauma of kicking a bad habit or the dark thoughts you are having. There are enough posts to make you feel good too or tickle your funny bone. You can even get naughty.

The app promotes the most popular posts. It also highlights what people nearby are saying so that you can strike up a friendship anonymously and eventually get to know each other for real.

Anonymity does protect you if you write about local politics or human rights issues. Anonymity will not protect you from cyber bullying. There may be perverts hanging out there looking to take advantage of your vulnerability. But Whisper says its employees keep a strict watch on stuff that do not belong and deletes them.

Most parents have not yet found out about Whisper. There are many posts about sex, drugs and violence. So should they be worried? I don’t think so because these are present on YouTube too, much more vividly. It is difficult to say how this app will affect teenagers since it is still new. It could just be a passing fad and die a natural death. But like it or not this app is fascinating.

Whisper has created a fourth network structure after Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. This is a network of youngsters. There are no celebrity users or Whisper stars. Everyone is the same and anonymous.

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