Graded for Fame

Posted on by scott

My librarian pal Dawn Rutherford pointed me toward this Time Magazine article about a class in internet fame.

Basically, the students in this Parson’s School of Design course compete to see who has the most Google hits on their name by the end of the term. They post YouTube videos and LOLcats, engage in hoaxes, start petitions, and make friends on social networking sites, whatever it takes to increase their face ranks. (In the class, they call it “famo.”) The winner gets the best grade.

Spookily familiar, isn’t it?

Click here for the syllabus. And here’s the class logo:

famoblingtype_horz.jpg

An internet fame course sounds to me like a great cross between fanciful and smart—part instruction and part academic research. Students at Parson’s are planning to be artists, after all, so they should get experience with self-promotion. (Though we authors never do that. NEVER.*)

Anyway, it was just so Extras that I had to pass it on. Thanks Dawn!

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*New Midnighters covers come out in four days!

700 thoughts on “Graded for Fame”

  1. oh man look at all the people who are here on Jan 1 (according to the clock on here not mine and not my time zone) its over half the whole thing!!!! i am not counting and not doing the math. yea, yea, i’m lazy. sorry. Oh great now my hyper giggly little sister’s starting to get into the full swing of her drunkactingnight syndrome. i gotta go do damage report.

  2. i thought you were talkative here after looking at all the comments and all. or at least kinda talkative.

  3. I guess I am pretty social
    I just don’t like my relatives
    My sister Becca’s been posting all night, not me
    What do you mean by your sister’s drunkactingnight syndrome?

  8. I’m beyond the point of reading all these comments.

    Happy New Year!

    I don’t WANT to go back to school tomorrow. I’m gonna cry. 😥

    608th comment? No one’s gonna read this. I can say whatever I want.

    ahem…

    Rihanna’s a slutty whore.

    Glad to get that off my chest.

  9. Lol, i read it. You have to go back to school? Uh, i dont go back til the 7th.

    Uh, i wouldnt even be awake except that my friend text me saying ‘happy new year’ @ 7 in the morning. I stayed up til 12 reading went to bed at like 1 and got woke up constantly after 7. UHHHH.

    Eeeeep! Bella’s engaged, lucky her!

  11. wow i don’t feel like reading all those comments, too tired…i haven’t even been to bed yet. too much sparkiling cider(i know it sounds gross but it’s actually delicious) and sparkiling grape juice. then i got the hick-ups 3 different times and chugged like 3 mountain dews….which is a stretch for me because i never drink pop…but my friend made me…denying me acess to water. yep. oh and this morning me and my friend were prank phone calling people(other friends of ours) at 7 a.m. it was hilarious b/c one of my friends was pranking people and then she forgot to *67 it and so we called her phone and like didn’t talk(we were 3 feet away from her) and she still thought it was this guy that she forgot to *67. lol. it was funny. maybe you had to be there. anyways that is the overview of my 2008 new years eve. well it was great and now i am going to go crash. goodnight.

    Happy New Year

  12. Yeah. We have like…wednesday, thursday, friday this week, then whole week next week, then no school the monday after next monday.

    Then we have like 2 more holidays before spring break in march. Then have like 2 more holidays before the 3 exams days at the end of the year. the exam days are half days, tho, so they aren’t so bad. basically just going to school to take the test. I don’t even have to bring my bookbag.

  14. well, unlike the rest of you, i was part of the extra 300 comments so i dont have to read them. I mean, hey, i had nothing else to do.

    What! When do you go back Allie-wa/lizzy-wa2?

  15. I love sparkling cider. Dont like the grape though. Ew.

    Well, at least i was able to sleep. But after reading last night about an engagement i had the weirdest dream.

    My teacher had this humongous ring and she couldnt fit it on her finger and i got in trouble 4 some reason. o ya it was because i was taking pictures and i was invading peoples space, i dont no, it was weird. And then i kept saying to myself ‘Its ok, Mrs.Kimmitt wont remember, its just a dream.’ i was right but for some reason i was like having some heart attack worrying about it in my dream.

  16. I feel alone………….again. Im starting to think i have problems or something. I think i need help.

  17. Huh? I go back tomorrow. School isn’t out til June tho. 🙁

    Yes Bran-la you do have problems. jk. 😛

    Or am I?

    ~*~Lizzy-wa2~*~

  20. I get out the first week of June. For some reason, my school district started really late this year (really. August 23rd), so we also get out really late.

  24. My school usually starts aroung August 11 – August 15. Always before my birthday, which is August 26th. 🙁

    The school’s birthday present to me is homework, dreary-ness, aching back, aching arms, aching brain, and depression.

    Isn’t that wonderful?

    And my school ends the last week of May. Usually.

    I think they are trying to get later and later each year. Trying to do it gradually, I guess.

  27. ssssssssssssssssssssoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
    bbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbboooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
    rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
    eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddd

  32. my scool goes from sep 5 to june 20. yepyepyep. well, this year at least…

    last nite was SO kick! fireworks, noise makers, really ugly hats, the works! except i got drunk…yeah. i woke up this morning with a headache. my friend that was there last nite keeps on making fun of me cuz she felt fine. shceeszh. she got less than a fourth of what i got!

    -Lizzy-wa OUT! 😛

  33. i get in around august 20th, and i end on may 30th.

    Last night was crazy i guess, i couldn’t get to sleep because i was reading, then my friends all texted me ‘happy new year’ so eventually i turned off my cell, and finally fell asleep.

  34. omg. did you seriously get drunk!?!?!

    lol. Hangovers. Makes me think of the book Lush.

    Ooh…some guy on Wikipedia called me and others homophobic. Fun.

  35. hehe. yes i did. on champagne mixed with sparkling cider. hehe. talk about bubbly!

    my friend was totally crazy. her parental objects dont let her do anything. my dad had to sneak hers. hehe. everytime she took a drink she started giggling all high an wierd an whatnot. hehe. it was pretty funny.

    -Lizzy-wa OUT! 8)

  36. Never been drunk. I’m sober 24/7! lol.

    hmm…I’ve had some champagne before, I think. Oh, wait. That was a dream.

    But we DO have champagne in the refridgerator…hmm…

    *shifty eyes*

  39. I have never been Drunk and dont plan to be anytime soon. Gosh, Lizzy-wa, your parentals dont seem to care! Ha! Dont do it Allie-wa! We have to admit that we have all had a sip, but the smell usually rejects me. Talk about horrendous!

    Well, i dont seem to have every had a depression, soberness, or been drunk. Ok, so sometimes i have momentary depression but it is momentary.

    Lizzy-wa, you need to calm down. You ave to many ‘Hehehe’s and ‘!’s in your last comment. You will be ok, its gonna be fine.

  40. Ok, all, and i mean ALL, of you said that the song Ashley Tisdale was stupid and all that. I feel like im on another planet than you guys sometimes. Like everyone that comes on this blog is way different from me when it comes to what i like. Its kind of weird. I have to say that i have TRIED to like bands and stuff, and my friends showed me some of those screamer songs, it scared me. Bands are ok but……..
    I dont no, sometimes i feel like im different species, its weird.

  41. hehe. sorry. oops! hehe. i just like saying that!

    yeah. i absolutely HATE the smell/taste of alchohol. but when its mixed with sparkling cider its really not that bad. hehe. i didnt even have that much. i take after my grandma. she will mix like, an eighth of a glass of champagne with the rest of the glass being 7up, and about half way threw she cant walk straight. hehe.

    -Lizzy-wa OUT! :mrgreen:

  42. Screamer songs? huh?

    You don’t have to ‘try to like something’. If you don’t like it, you don’t like it.

    I don’t try to like Fall Out Boy. I don’t try to like Avril Lavigne. I don’t try to like My Chemical Romance (some of their stuff is good.) I don’t try to like Taylor Swift. I don’t try to like REM. I don’t try to like…umm…umm…well, you get the point. I like them naturally…without any trying.

    The same way I don’t try to dislike Ashley Tisdale, Aly & AJ, the Jonas Brothers, or Hannah Montana. I just…don’t.

  43. WHATS RONG WITH DIFFERENT WORLDS? hehe. oops! caps lock. hehe.

    hhhhmmmm….yeah. i dont care for the whole screaming thing. i just recently came accostomed to stuff like Boys Like Girls and such. up until then i was a country fanatic.

    -Lizzy-wa OUT! 🙂

  44. Ew, hey, just because i like Ashley Tisdale (and ALy and AJ) Doesn’t mean i like Hannah Montanna and The Jonas Brothers. Thats something i will NEVER try to like.

    Screamer songs, the ones where they scream through out the whole song and you buy a nice pear of ear plugs.

    My Chemical Romance makes me feel, really, i don’t no how to explain it.

  45. Gross, i HATE country. Everything dies, or goes away. and besides, i dont want to hear there little country voice. And im pretty sure there all named Billy or Bubba so what difference does it make.

    Thats something i can never stand to hear, country. Or Jazz. Or the Blues. Or slow songs, i hate slow songs. (unless its a dance party.)

  47. hey! countrys not that bad! have you ever even LISTENED to any songs? or are you just referring to what all stupid teens say about country these days? how its “hillbilly music” and all you ever hear is hobos yodeling and banjos? cuz thats not country!

    -Lizzy-wa OUT! 😡

  48. woah. sorry. why do i always lose my temper on here?

    you no. i dont get that phrase. “lose your temper”. whats a temper anyways? and how cood you lose it?

    -Lizzy-wa OUT! 😐

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