There are a lot of blogs these days with simple messages, and they’re the hottest thing around. Millions of people read PostSecret every week, but those postcards read like one big hand is writing and sending them all. Does everybody think and write the same way? Does everybody use the same grammar and syntax? No, but there’s certainly a format people adopt to write their secrets, probably because they read so much PostSecret.

I Can Read  follows in the same writing vein as PostSecret, the one-voice model. People love quotes, and they particularly love quotes in poster-like photographs.

I never really understood my friends’ obsession with quotes. They liked quotes from celebrities, intellectuals or the randomly, authorless encouraging word memes that floated around the school like candy. They would paste them onto their desks in elementary school, and as we grew older, they put them on their Facebook page’s “Favorite quotes.”

There’s something oddly addictive about I Can Read, though. Although the title of the blog is sort of tongue-in-cheek, the content all follows an inspirational model. I can feel myself getting sucked into really unspecific and sourceless quotes like, “Your dreams cannot come true unless you wake up.”

On the site, this particular quote is painted onto a piece of white wood, and held by a blonde girl in what appears to be a rural setting. Looking at it, I think, yeah, yeah, that’s so true! But of course it’s true. It’s overly simple, but that’s the point of inspirational messages, isn’t it? They need to apply to the greatest common denominator, even if that population has no way of achieving these formless “dreams.”

That’s what’s so appealing and so disturbing about websites like PostSecret and I Can Read. On the surface, they seem applicable to everyone, but on second look, they are both isolating and meaningless. Take for example the quote “Be with someone who makes you happy.” Simple enough. Straightforward enough. But what is happiness?

This quote doesn’t allow for the diversity of experiences or attitudes, so it essentially nullifies its own meaning. No one is happy with another person all of the time. They could hate their partners' shoe collections or wish they would stop snoring. The person could be happier or alone. Or the person could be unhappy, regardless of the perfection of her partner. This quote means nothing, but instead is pithy, ineffectual blather much like the inane song, “Be happy.”

People who love and write quotes, please be careful. Language gives us the ability to be precise and specific, so use it well. More specificity of time, place, situation, and author can be much more compelling—and relatable—than these meaningless quotes.