At about 6:00 PM on Labor Day, many McPherson residents found a friend request in their Instagram notifications; a user under the name of @mactown_. In the biography of this new page, it’s quoted saying, “Mac Highlights- Trying to make our town seem more exciting than it actually is.” The response was immediate. Within an hour, they were near 100 followers,  by Tuesday afternoon, over 200, and on Wednesday just about to jump the 300 mark. I wanted to know more, so, naturally, I sent them a message via Instagram.

On @mactown_, each post is McPherson related, with the words “You Know” in the location bar, and some funny little caption or photo credit at the bottom. So far, pictures are covering all the bases, from cheerleaders and high-steppers, to debate, band, and theatre, sports aren’t the only thing they are interested in.  I asked them to tell me more about their account, and they said, “We would like to remain anonymous, but my friend and I decided that we should make an edits sort of page of McPherson. And yes, there is more than one of us. This account can’t be behind just one mastermind, but we are all MHS students. Our theme is McPherson Highlights, and we choose pictures that we think highlight what our town is about, and we will also post updates going on at the high school. We kind of want something for everybody. We are going for more McPherson people in general, but most of the response is MMS and MHS students, but we also got parents and some kids from Ellsworth.”

   As there isn’t a McPherson Instagram page, it isn’t surprising that they gained so much popularity. Followers send in their photos, and they often get posted, and the owner also takes appropriate photos off of follower’s pages. “It’s like a yearbook online,” said sophomore Macy Hubbard. I asked @_mactown if they agreed. “Yeah, I think we are like a yearbook,” they replied. “We want to expand our borders to anything McPherson, but right now it’s mainly MHS. We are keeping our posts clean and are trying to keep people entertained. It’s all still pretty new, though, so I guess we’ll see where this takes us.”

After talking to several students, I started noticing a trend:

   “I want to know who made it. The band is on there!” an excited Chloe Jones, sophomore, said.

   “I think the page is a really cool idea, and the mystery behind it all makes it even better,” sophomore Rachael Hendricks is quoted.

   “I don’t even care about the page! I just want to know who is doing it! I’ve been trying to deduce the pictures they’ve been posting! I want to figure out who they are!” an eccentric sophomore, Jacob Rogers, commented.

   “I don’t know who runs the page, but it sure is great! Our town isn’t exactly the busiest, but this format is a great way to show off the activities going on in central Kansas,” said eighth grader Lily Parker.

   Everyone is wondering the same thing: who are these people? We may never find out, but as MHS student Rachael Hendricks said, “The mystery behind it all makes it even better.”