wenasvault

[wenasvault]

Final Reflection Video (Please visit the link to view!)

Aloha everyone, 

Please visit my Final Reflection Video for my project about parasocial relationships! This will appear as an unlisted video via my YouTube channel for this project. 

As a point of reference, here are the questions that I answer throughout this video: 

What were your thoughts about your research topic going into the first week of the semester?

What are your thoughts now about your research topic and your project/practicum?

What did you learn about yourself as a creative through this journey?

What did you learn about the creative and production process?

What advice would you give new senior capstone students?

Where to now?

NOTE: One part that I forgot to discuss is the question 'Where to now?'

After I graduate I plan to work with the Māpuna Lab as a research / graphics assistant! So I will be getting to apply all of the skills that I learned with design, social media, etc. all into my work with them. 

You can visit my account wenaswiftie on Instagram to view the process & results of this experiment. 

Mahalo for your time!

[wenasvault]

Week #12 UPDATE

(April 2 - April 8) 

Aloha everyone, 

No major updates for this week other than me finishing up my final posts for my infographics. You can visit my Capstone / Temporary Fan Account page @wenaswiftie to view those posts. 

I wish everyone the best of luck in these last few weeks!!!!

Thank you for reading, 

Kawena

[wenasvault]

Week #11 Update (March 26 - April 1)

Aloha everyone, 

Since last week’s update, I have the first set of my infographic posts posted! The purpose of those infographics is to introduce my audience to what Parasocial Relationship(s) are as well as the different levels individuals can find themselves in. 

This week’s posts will outline the main scope of my project, such as the main question, how I aim to solve said question, logistic & project goals, and other clarifications. 

Please feel free to visit my Instagram profile @wenaswifite. 

That’s all that I have for this week!

Mahalo for reading, 

Kawena

[wenasvault]

Week #9 & #10 Update (March 12 - March 25)

Aloha everyone, 

The only major update that I have following our Spring Break is that I have started to post my infographics to my main Instagram feed @ wenaswiftie! These infographics mark as the “switch” that I was referring to in previous posts. So I will no longer be a “fan account” and will instead begin to inform my followers of what parasocial relationships are as well as my personal progress. 

With that being said, here are a few teasers of what my posts for this week will be. I will be posting on Monday (which I did already today), Wednesday, and Friday. This will continue for the next two weeks as I finish up this project. 

I also plan on editing my final video soon that will summarize my intentions, the initial project, and overall outcome of this parasocial relationship experiment. 

Mahalo for reading this far if you did!

- Kawena

[wenasvault]

(RANDOM)

Week #8

Here's what my feed looks like!

wenaswiftie

[wenasvault]

Week #8 UPDATE (Mar 5 - Mar 11)

Posted today, March 11.

Aloha everyone, 

I am currently in my 8th week of posting consistently to my fan account as well as immersing myself in the world of Taylor Swift and her fandom, Swifties. 

The Next Few Weeks

As a reminder, I am going to begin my “shift” from being a temporary fan account to posting my progress on my PSR with Taylor Swift. These posts will likely be in the form of infographics! More specifically, I will be providing information that I researched during my Pre-capstone that will support my PSR progress. I will also be posting these infographic posts on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays as we near the end of the semester. I will likely start posting this after Spring Break. 

I also plan to start editing my final video that will summarize this entire project. I will be using some of my daily confessionals and progress points discussed here as the main content for that video.

Hiccups 

I have gotten very busy within the past couple of weeks with school, job interviews (not related to this class), and other outside commitments. So given those factors, staying on top of this personal experiment / project has been challenging. Time was my main opposition during the past two months. 

Reflection 

I feel really confident in all of the work that I have put in and information I have gathered over the past couple of months now. I just need to finish off strong. 

STAY TUNED!

You can follow or observe my temporary fan account at wenaswiftie on Instagram! By the time Spring Break is over, I will likely start posting my infographics officially documenting this whole process. 

Mahalo to those who’ve read this!

[wenasvault]

Week #7 UPDATE (Feb 26 - Mar 4)

Posted today, March 4th

Aloha everyone, 

The first set of photos is my progress after posting for almost two months now. I made sure from the get-go to establish a theme for my posts. I also specifically chose Reels in order to come into contact with more Swifties so that I can interact with them more! 

Note: @wenaswiftie is my temporary fan account. I will be switching to an infographic style of posts that will reflect my PSR progress! 

My Current PSR (parasocial relationship)

I am still posting on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. I have also maintained my daily schedules of interacting with Taylor Swift content and editing for at least two hours a day. Overall, my current PSR with Taylor Swift falls between entertainment-social and intense-personal, but I am more towards the entertainment-social side. 

Similar to what I’ve previously said, other than time management being a factor, many of my personal values do not directly correlate with Taylor’s, so growing in the intense-personal level has been harder than expected.

Interacting With Swifties

I continue to talk with other fans via other accounts' comment sections, in my comment sections, DMs and also through the use of polls and other interactive posts. 

Speaking of, similar to what I posted last week, I wanted to see what Swifties thought about a very viral video of another fan bursting out into tears after hearing a song at Taylor’s concert. You can find the link to my post here where I made a fan edit out of it. I ended up putting up a poll on that post for a few days to see what Swifties had to say, and these were the results I came up with (see bottom photo). 

I mentioned this in one of my confessional videos but it is honestly intimidating to have so much power over someone’s life, especially when it relates to art. While I did think that fan’s reactions were intense, music does have the ability to move people deeply. And in that Swifties case (and in her own words), it “saved her life.”

A Swiftie actually got a bit defensive in the comments, which was a reaction that I was honestly expecting. 

What’s Next

After Week #8 or Week #9, I’m going to begin my “shift” into my final posts for my Capstone project. Again, these posts will be in an infographic format detailing my PSR with Taylor Swift. 

I also want to conduct more of a direct poll for Swifties after I have made my “shift.” 

Additionally, I need to continue to remain adamant about engaging and posting until then. 

Mahalo for reading,

[wenasvault]

WEEK #6 UPDATE (Feb 19 - Feb 25)

(Posted today, February 26th)

Aloha everyone, 

Through my temporary fan account for Taylor Swift, I decided this past week that I wanted to start asking my followers questions that relate to parasocial relationships. 

However, I have to keep doing this as subtly as possible. 

Specifics

For my pre-capstone, I wrote about parasocial relationships and how intense they have become because of social media. One of the areas that I wrote about is celebrities' personal relationships (romantic & platonic) that fans tend to heavily involve themselves in. 

Given how big both Taylor and Travis Kelce currently are, I wanted to ask my Swiftie followers their thoughts on the situation. I first started off with asking them a general question which was, "Initial thoughts on Travis?" Then, I asked to see if they’re at all invested with Taylor’s romantic relationships. 

(Please see photos for reference!)

Results

Much to my surprise, a majority of my followers chose the “No, that’s her private life” option when asked, “Do you care for Taylor’s romances?” I say that this surprised me because there are many fan accounts that I have lurked upon that are heavily invested in all of Taylor’s relationships. 

Granted, these particular results are solely from my fan account, so it may have been different if a bigger account presented this poll to their followers. 

Reflections

Overall, the majority of Swifties that responded to my poll seem to respect Taylor’s privacy. Whether this is hypocritical or not also cannot be determined by me or this poll alone. I honestly think that at this point it may be a divided opinion amongst the fandom.

Nonetheless, I am honestly glad that there are fans who have set boundaries for themselves. I would assume that they are the ones who fall within the entertainment-social category of PSRs – which is great! 

VISIT MY TEMPORARY FAN ACCOUNT!

You can find my fan account for TS by searching @wenaswiftie on Instagram. I will continue posting edits and similar polls in my stories, so stay tuned.

Note: I will be switching from a ‘fan account’ to my final project results for PSRs as the semester nears its end

[wenasvault]

WEEK #5 Update (Feb 12 - Feb 18)

(Posted today, Feb 19th)

Aloha everyone, 

This week makes it a month since I’ve been posting to my fan account for TS. Also a little over a month since I’ve been “in” the fandom as a whole. 

Reflection / Hiccups

When it comes to my PSR with TS, I would say that I am somewhere between the first stage (entertainment-social) and the second stage (intense-personal). Last week I mentioned that the main thing that is preventing me from progressing on is time management. However, another factor has also come to light, which is values. 

My personal values do not entirely align with TS’ outside of her artistry – there’s a handful of criticisms that I have conjured up after being in her fandom for a month now. So in that sense, it is hard for me right now to want to defend her the way Swifities within the intense-personal stage do. 

PSR

But other than that, what I wrote about last semester still remains to be true – social media has definitely exacerbated PSRs between fans and personas. 

As I previously mentioned, I have actively been in the Swiftie fandom for a month now, so I have been able to see just how obsessed and defensive TS’ fans can be. With everything that has happened with the Grammy’s, Superbowl, and other situations in between, Swifties will almost blindly go to war for TS. That being said, if my values did align more with TS, I could see myself already being in that kind of head space – but it’s honestly difficult right now. 

Progress

Much to my surprise, I now have over one hundred followers on Instagram. I still need to write the questions, but, I want to put up a poll or survey towards the end of this project to gather stats directly from Swifities. For this reason, I have been extremely adamant about posting on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays to gain more followers and increase my engagement.

And in regards to my content, now that I have the basics down with TS, I am kind of just posting what I want based on random / new things about TS. 

VISIT MY ACCOUNT!

You can visit @wenaswiftie to view my progress. 

NOTE: At this time, I will not be following anyone from our class back because I do not want my followers to know quite yet that this is a personal social experiment. I will be switching from a ‘fan account’ to posting about my progress with PSRs towards the end of the semester

[wenasvault]

WEEK #4 Update (Feb. 5 - Feb. 11)

Aloha everyone, 

By now, I hope those who have read my posts are somewhat aware of my goals for this project. 

Summary / Reflection

To preface, I have immersed myself in TS’ fandom for over a month now. Additionally, I have also started to post to my fan account for three weeks; this week will make it a month!

My main takeaway now that I am at the three week mark is yes, social media has most definitely caused my PSR with TS to develop more rapidly. At this point, I would say that I am slowly transitioning into the second level of PSRs, which is intense-personal. For a majority of the past month, I would say that I resided in the entertainment-social level of PSRs, but that has slightly changed. 

I say this because now that I have done my version of a ‘crash course’ when learning about TS, I feel like I am a bit more caught up with her fandom’s lore and how TS communicates with them. 

Hiccups

However, the one thing that has been difficult in transitioning into the intense-personal phase is time management. I am aware that there are so many more fans that quite literally make TS their life, but that is not plausible for me at the moment.

I am still a student, and still work part time while also having other hobbies outside of this. So I have been having to make even more of an effort to stay engaged. 

Thus, actively being in the intense-personal stage of PSR with TS for the next month is going to be difficult, but is not entirely impossible. 

VISIT MY FAN ACCOUNT!

If you’d like to see my progress and how I am communicating with other Swifities, you can visit my fan account on Instagram @wenaswiftie, which is where I am mainly posting. 

Thank you for reading!

[wenasvault]

WEEK #3 Update (Jan. 29 - Feb. 4)

Aloha everyone,

This will be my two week update after establishing, posting, and interacting with fans on my TS fan account. To say it has been interesting would be an understatement, but overall has honestly been fun. 

One of the main things that I had to mention in this week’s update is just how obsessed many of TS’ fans are with her – which I knew of, but didn’t know how deep it ran. 

To preface, now that I am roughly two weeks in, I understand why people appreciate her artistry, because I honestly overlooked it for so long. However, observing Swifities behavior via the comment sections of other fan accounts or in posts still never ceases to take me aback. I’m still thinking, “Wow, I didn’t know they could care so much about this,” because it’s true.

Nonetheless, I have to consider that many TS fans have been keeping up with her for over a decade. But I am curious to see if I could reach that point within two months. 

I would still say that I am at the entertainment-social level of PSRs, but that could all change within two weeks or another month. 

Thank you for reading!

(If you would like to see my progress of this PSR project, you can visit @wenaswiftie on Instagram)

[wenasvault]

WEEK #2 Update (Jan. 22 - Jan. 28)

Aloha everyone, 

This week’s post will be a reflection on my first week of actively uploading content and engaging with Taylor Swift and her fandom, Swifties. I’m going to mainly be posting on Instagram, so please refer to this link to view my account @wenaswiftie. 

My Daily Schedule: 

I spent an average of 2-3 hours every day consuming and creating everything related to TS. 

One of the first things that I have been trying to make a habit of in the morning is checking my Instagram feed to see what TS and the fan accounts that I follow have posted. The two main fan accounts that I follow post real-time updates, however one of them does it in a blogging format – where she also inserts her own thoughts, opinions, etc.

After doing course work / working for a few hours, I would repeat this process during my lunch breaks. On top of this, I also posted my video content during lunch on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. 

Once I was finished with my work for the day (5:00 pm), I would again, scroll through my feed – filling myself in on different TS updates. Additionally, I would use some of my personal free time to watch or listen to TS, and also create my edits to post as well. So other than my coursework, TS has been constantly in front of my eyes to these extents. 

Engagement: 

This week, I received a lot more engagement than I was expecting from Swifities. Also, to my surprise, the fans that have interacted with my account have so far been really nice. I haven’t faced anything negative, yet. 

However, what I need to do more of is to engage with other Swifties in the comments of the fan accounts I follow. For example, I noticed on @swiftiesforeternity’s posts, so many fans are more than comfortable to share their opinions on whatever the content is. Some comments literally left me thinking, “Wow, I didn’t know they could care so much about this...” 

Introspection: Drama Within The Fandom

Not to sound like a drama account / channel, but this past week has been very interesting for TS and her fandom. At the beginning of last week, Taylor’s long-time stalker was arrested 3 times in 5 days after visiting her house in NYC.

Additionally, there was a very viral moment of the explicit AI generated photos of Taylor that spread like wildfire online.

Both instances are a direct result of PSRs, but at different degrees. I would say the stalker situation could be borderline-pathological, while the AI photo situation could be intense-personal. 

Nonetheless, it was weird for me to reflect on these situations because I am still at the beginning stages of my PSR with TS. But knowing that my PSR with her could progress to something like those real-life examples is honestly concerning. 

I hope by the end of two months that I still find myself in a somewhat healthy place.

However I will say that I am starting to become much more addicted to using my phone for Instagram. 

[wenasvault]

WEEK #1 Update (Jan. 15 - Jan. 21)

Aloha everyone, 

Since our last class on the 16th, I began preparing the content that I’m going to be posting on my ‘fan account’ for Taylor Swift. 

For those who didn’t watch my Introduction Video (which is pinned), I wrote about parasocial relationships (PSRs) last semester – which is what this project is going to be centered on. 

Reiterating My Goals:  

I plan on immersing myself in the world of a fan to understand how parasocial relationships have become exacerbated because of social media. I wanted to do this organically by trying to become a fan of someone I previously knew of but felt indifferent about, which is Taylor Swift. She was one of the most mentioned celebrities last year, so I found it fitting. 

By the end of the semester, my goal is to see where I’d fall on the different levels of PSRs (entertainment-social, intense-personal, or borderline-pathological) and from that, determine whether fans can manage their relationships with celebrity personas in a healthy way. 

How I Will Document My Progress: 

The content that I’m going to be posting on my Instagram fan account will be documenting different things that I learn about Taylor each week. So for the first two weeks, I’m going to be focusing on her music – since I only knew her more popular songs. Through my posts, my goal is to also network with other Swifties so that I can fully be in that ‘fan’ mentality.

If you’d like to see that content, you can search @wenaswiftie on Instagram + Twitter and give it a follow! My posting days will be on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. 

Hiccups / Personal Reflection:  

I was aware that keeping up with a celebrity as closely as stans (stalker-fans) do would be time consuming, but I underestimated how much time it would actually take. I spent nearly 4 hours of my free time indulging myself in Taylor’s discography and also making my edits for IG. I also followed some of the bigger fan accounts on IG to stay up to date with everything Taylor does, which has been helpful reeling me in as a work-in-progress fan. 

I posted my first Reel today, and to my surprise it got a lot of engagement within the first 30 minutes of me posting. I am hoping to soon connect with fans as the weeks progress through my content.

[wenasvault]

Introduction Video for CM 491!

Parasocial Relationships

Visit my temporary PSR fan account! wenaswiftie