Sex and The Ivy

In a marketplace of ideas, individuals have become brands and there is no better place to sell yourself than the Internet.

What we buy, eat and read has been commodified to the point where we are told it sends a message about who we are as people. Everytime I use my computer in public, I broadcast the message, “I’m a Mac.”  Apple computers are more expensive, but they are sleek, sexy and powerful, just like their owners. Rowr. On a serious note, however,  with Internet publishing tools, we are in control of the message, both online and offline, as never before.

Harvard college senior, Lena Chen, is the first to admit she is “famous on the Internet for all the wrong things,” but in the new media landscape of the 21st century, she is the perfect case study of how to use technology to build yourself into a brand. When it comes to writing about sex at college, there is no stronger brand on the market.

The 20-year-old sociology major’s tell-all blog, Sex And The Ivy, where she has shares musings on dating and sex--or the lack thereof--at one of America’s premier colleges, has propelled her to a sort of Internet infamy, and no shortage of scandalouss accusations, but it has also spawned imitators and opened the door for Chen to freelance her work for Hustler , MTV, The Boston Globe and others.Continue Reading...