As I was scrolling through my Instagram search feed, I stumbled across a post posted by the user annagracemaignan, encouraging others to vote in the Canadian Federal election, on October 21st, 2019. Interested in who was posting this content, I clicked on the username and checked out her profile, which was public and accessible to the public. From her profile, I discovered that she is a young woman of colour living on Vancouver Island. Her page only had a handful of posts, but from these images, I was able to piece together my own version of who she is and what her interests are. The photos she had on her page ranged from mundane pictures of her dog to more interesting images of political protests and marches.
The post that caught my attention the most was a picture of a protest sign from last year’s women’s march. The poster depicts Princess Leia holding a riffle with the slogan “A Woman’s Place is in the Resistance.” I assume that Anna was part of the march and made that sign herself. Both this post and the election post lead me to believe that she is politically inclined and a supporter of feminism and women’s rights, or at least that is how she presents herself on social media. These assumptions were further supported by another post that showed pictures from an “Extinction Rebellion “climate change demonstration. The picture included a sign with killer whales and a tanker that read “Save Us Now-There is no Planet B.” While these posts indicated that Anna is politically inclined, the other posts on her page were more personal and less political such as photos of her dog, herself, food, and nature.
Based on what I was able to piece together from my observations of her Instagram, I was able to assume that she has a political bent and is not afraid to express her opinion. Her other pictures, however, (her dog, nature, food, etc.) indicate that she is neither obsessed nor preoccupied with political issues; but can be aroused to act should the opportunity arise. It is important to remember that the image presented by social media tends to create a picture of the person as they want to be seen and does not necessarily reflect who they are on a day to day basis. Having said that, I believe my profile of Anna is reasonably accurate based on her presentation on social media.
Digital Social Narratives 