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Content warning: this article contains mention of self-harm, suicide and abuse.

Syracuse University students walking around campus stop and wait for their chance to write a secret they’ve been keeping and read someone elses’. This social experiment is part of Spencer Chan’s social media page, Milking Ardor.

“We all have a story to tell and I don’t think we should keep it to ourselves and keep it to our close ones, I think we should share that as much as possible and celebrate that,” Chan said.

Chan is a junior Communications and Rhetorical Studies major in the College of Visual and Performing Arts at SU. He is known for his TikTok account, Milking Ardor, ardor being a synonym for empathy, with a total of 1.2 million likes and his most popular video nearing 10 million views. On Instagram, his hopecore style videos have surpassed 30 million views.

Chan’s social media career began in seventh grade when he watched a YouTube video of a creator asking out their crush. He liked the concept of the video and decided to make his own, playing the role of his “crush” by texting himself on Snapchat.

The video was filmed on his Kindle Fire. Two months after it was uploaded, the video amassed two million views and earned almost $2,000.

Using the revenue from his video, he purchased an $800 point-and-shoot camera and began filming his podcast in high school, where guests would talk about serious issues such as self-harm, suicide and abuse. Chan spoke to people who lost their loved ones and parents whose children died from drunk driving.

“With that podcast, I slowly started getting into darker stories that are rooted in the reality and the world we live in,” Chan said. “After that, I thought, ‘How can I be optimistic and move forward from all of that?’ And that’s kind of brought me to where I am now.”

Liann Downs | Contributing Photographer

Chan sometimes comes up to the second floor of Schine Student Center to edit his videos. He usually outsources his videos to an editor as he doesn’t have time during the day to edit it himself.

When he arrived at SU in August 2022, Chan found out he gained 100,000 followers on Instagram when he exchanged socials with an acquaintance. He spent the summer producing content, silencing his notifications and not checking his engagement. Since then, Chan has gained 90,000 more followers and used his platform to encourage sociability.

Chan’s content creation continued but took different forms. After seeing a lot of college content surrounding things that didn’t resonate with him, like drinking and partying, Chan decided to take his own spin on things.

Noticing these differences on campus, Chan began making wholesome videos that spread positivity between people having social interactions.

In one of Chan’s videos, one person from California and one from India met together over lunch. These types of interactions allowed people to see beyond cultural differences and realize that people at their core are more similar than different, Malique Lewis, a fellow content creator who graduated from SU last year, said.

Along with work on his own social media, Chan creates videos for SU’s instagram account. Lewis said that being at SU offered Chan enriching opportunities because of the diversity of people who he talked to for his videos. He also said Syracuse is a melting pot, and Chan’s account highlights that diversity well.

“When you’re making content you don’t want to talk to the same people with the same perspectives and mindset,” Lewis said. “You want to shine a light on people who may be overlooked or people who may not have a voice.”

On Milking Ardor, Chan started making a wholesome version of typical truth or dare videos with his friend, Diamonte Giacovelli, a junior advertising major at SU. Videos usually included Chan daring participants to call their mom and tell them they love her or coaxing them to give a compliment to 10 strangers.

The two would wake up early on Friday mornings and spend the day filming in Schine Student Center or Bird Library.

“Every day is fun, it doesn’t feel like we’re working, it just feels like we are having fun and creating great content together,” Giacovelli said.

Chan and Giacovelli easily bounced ideas off of each other when creating videos because they think similarly, Giacovelli added.

Liann Downs | Contributing Photographer

Chan keeps all the secrets he’s collected so far in a bowl. He said he has yet to count them, and hopefully will in the near future.

From there, the videos evolved into Chan’s current series, “Read a Secret, Leave a Secret,” in which strangers read other strangers’ anonymously written secrets aloud to a camera. Chan said he hopes this series builds community and connection among individuals who participate and watch.

He has already witnessed the series bring people together. Chan found himself relating to some of the secrets that people had written down.

For Lewis, the series is a beacon of hope for students who are struggling and feel alone.

“(The series is) letting students know that they can make it through whatever they are going through, they can come out on the other side brighter,” Lewis said.

Many of Chan’s videos give a platform and voice to people who are normally more introverted and shy. Chan said he is trying to teach people that social interactions and vulnerability are not things that should be feared.

“(The series is) empowering them to be their best self and that’s one thing I like about (Chan), that’s at the core of everything he makes,” Lewis said.

Lewis said that in a polarizing social media landscape, Chan’s content stands out by giving people hope and reassurance. Chan hopes to have the same impact on his viewers.

Lewis and Giacovelli echoed similar sentiments of gratitude for meeting and working with Chan. Giacovelli said Chan has been a huge help in his personal and professional life.

“I was definitely in a rough spot in life before I met (Chan) and didn’t feel confident and didn’t feel worthy of being at this school,” Giacovelli said. “He helped build me to be more confident and appreciative of life and not let people walk all over me.”

Published on September 30, 2024 at 11:33 pm