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Viral Veritas: How Student Influencers Turn Harvard Into Payouts and Purpose | Magazine | The Harvard Crimson

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I n a neuroscience lecture at the end of her sophomore fall semester at Harvard, Soleil E. Golden ’24 took out her phone to film a video clip. “What are you recording for?” a student sitting next to her asked. “Oh, I’m vlogging for my TikTok,” Golden replied, after which the student pulled up her profile (which now has more than 500,000 followers). She promptly suggested the two meet for coffee. The student turned out to be the president of the Exister Society — or the “X”, a women’s final club. Shortly after, Golden had completely bypassed the semester-long “punch” process and was initiated into the club the next weekend. “I didn’t go through a single round. It gave me an immense amount of privilege in that regard, having a social media platform,” Golden says. “Some people were not happy because they had to go through all of punch and had to see their friends get eliminated, and then I just got in without even being interviewed.” A representative of the Exister Society declined to com

Viral Veritas: How Student Influencers Turn Harvard Into Payouts and Purpose | Magazine | The Harvard Crimson The Harvard Crimson Viral Veritas: How Student Influencers Turn Harvard Into Payouts and Purpose As more and more students take up the role of ‘Harvard influencer,’ social media success is increasingly shaping their life on campus. Yet student internet stardom still feels like uncharted territory. By Xinyi (Christine) Zhang Viral Veritas: How Student Influencers Turn Harvard Into Payouts and Purpose As more and more students take up the role of ‘Harvard influencer,’ social media succes

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