Celebrities including Kim Kardashian and Peyton Manning have joined university Zoom classes—and now students everywhere are requesting online appearances from influencers.
On Thursday, Kim Kardashian joined Georgetown University’s Forgotten Humanity of Prisoners course on Zoom and spoke about The Justice Project, her latest prison-reform documentary premiering on Sunday.
“I can’t wait for you guys to see it,” Kardashian said to the students. “I really hope that it just sheds a different light on so many different situations.”
NFL player Peyton Manning joined a University of Tennessee Zoom course on March 26. Commenters noticed disinterest among some students.
Actor Matthew McConaughey joined a University of Texas at Austin faculty Zoom meeting on March 26.
Last week, TikTok user Jessica Saucedo directly messaged The Bachelor host Chris Harrison, inviting him to join her Zoom class. Harrison joined her Loyola Marymount University Ethics of Love and Marriage class and called it “the most dramatic class yet,” E! News reports.
Celebrity Zoom appearances are causing causing some influencers to jump on the trend.
YouTuber James Charles tweeted on March 30 that he wanted to join his followers’ Zoom classes and received mixed reactions in the comments.
Some people dropped direct links to their Zoom classes, but others warned Charles that this behavior would serve as a “distraction” and an “interruption” to an already difficult learning environment.
Some universities have adjusted their policies to address the increase in “Zoom bombings.”
After racist trolls intruded a Zoom meeting on Monday, University of Texas at Austin President Greg Fenves said he is “working to improve security across all of our digital platforms to make sure they are used exclusively by members of the UT community.”
On March 30, the FBI published a statement encouraging individuals to make Zoom meetings private by not sharing links on social media and requiring passwords for meeting entries.
Still, students are still begging celebrities to join their classes.