Hey Friends! Good to see you.
I guess you could call me a Governerd.
I’m not sure exactly how long I have followed microcelebrity, Sharon McMahon’s @sharonsaysso Instagram account but, prior to this project, I would have considered myself a devotee due to the fact that I refrain from commenting or engaging beyond likes. Now I feel more deeply aligned with the community of followers through common interests and social behaviors such as sharing McMahon’s account and activities, contributing to teacher and community grants, and actively engaging in my local community. This reevaluation of my place among the @sharonsaysso followers developed over the past few weeks as I completed the LEAP 2 assignment and is just one of several things that I learned along the way.
When I first followed a recommendation to check out McMahon’s Instagram account, I completed a cursory evaluation before clicking the follow button. As I do with all public accounts, I continued to consider the value of following each time she popped up in my feed. With some accounts, I find that it is not a good fit and unfollow but @sharonsaysso remained a constant fixture. I enjoyed that this project created an opportunity for me to look at the account with a new focus along with my partner, Luke, who was just introduced to Sharon.
As a follower, I have learned a lot about our government, history, current events, and even bald eagles and whales from Sharon McMahon. I have been inspired to act in various ways. I have found other accounts to follow based on her recommendations. However, through the LEAP 2 process, I spent more time researching her digital identity and found out about the impetus and conscious shift behind her public digital identity as I came to know her. I learned about her background in photography, which I now see clearly impacts the appearance of her feed. I also learned that it takes a great deal of effort to seem so effortlessly relatable and clearly trustworthy to such a large audience.
Partnering with Luke, I found that we complemented each other well throughout the collaboration and though we had very similar working styles and content ideas our differing strengths and unique perspectives were advantageous. It was very easy to work around our busy schedules in different time zones because we were able to segment the work and have brief and focused check-ins at regular intervals throughout the project. Where finding the right words is a laborious and anxiety-ridden process for me, Luke was able to beautifully weave together a script from our initial drafts, keeping the authenticity of both of our voices.
After reviewing our drafts and discussing possible visuals, I took on the role of organizing the graphics, images, and videos that would illustrate and hopefully enhance our narrated analysis. I struggle to visualize images in my mind and have considered that I might have Aphantasia but in spite of this — or perhaps because of it, I enjoy communicating visually. This process has helped me to see that it may be because I can create the pictures that I cannot see in my mind.
As the final video came together, I shared it with a couple of my colleagues. They are active Instagram users but neither had heard of Sharon McMahon. While they were able to give some helpful feedback about some details, they also shared the same initial reaction: “I’m going to have to follow her.” This reminds me of some of the discussions the EDC 534 group has shared in the annotations of earlier readings. As a digital author, I know my intent was not to convince others to follow an account, but once I create something and share it with others it is open to their interpretation and experience.
So now there are a few more Governerds. Hey Friends! Good to see you.
References:
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Booth (Ed), A Companion to Media Fandom and Fan Studies (pp. 13–26).
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Martínez, C., & Olsson, T. (2019). Making sense of YouTubers: how
Swedish children construct and negotiate the YouTuber Misslisibell as a
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