Scream Into the Void

Scream Into the Void is a single-purpose website where you write an angry thought, a complaint, or something you'd rather not send, then deliberately throw it away. There's no social feed or conversation waiting on the other side.

It was created by the Last Week Tonight with John Oliver team in October 2015 as a response to Peeple, a proposed app for rating other people. Instead of posting a judgment for others to see, the idea was to send it into an empty digital void.

Type whatever's on your mind into the text box in front of a dark, swirling vortex. Press the red SCREAM button and your words get sucked into the void as a loud scream plays.

When it's over, the page responds with "Glad nobody read that!" and offers a link to scream again. There's no score, progression, or public reply. You simply write something and watch it disappear.

Most websites are designed to keep what you contribute. Scream Into the Void makes watching your own words disappear the entire payoff. You spend time composing something just so the page can dramatically swallow it.

The joke is also about the internet itself. Instead of turning another angry thought into something people can like, share, or argue over, the website gives it a vortex, a scream, and an anticlimactic goodbye.

Scream Into the Void takes a familiar text box and makes letting go the entire interaction. What began as a 2015 television joke still works as a strange, funny alternative to hitting Send.