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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........

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