--- title: ‘Founder’ Doesn’t Describe Post-Millennial Generation description: I would love for my generation to be risk-takers, but we are too concerned with social media popularity canonical: https://time.com/4133404/generation-after-millennials/ author: Eleanor Weber article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-12-02T20:24:33.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T13:03:36.220Z article:section: Ideas og:title: 12-Year-Old: ‘Founder’ Doesn’t Describe Post-Millennial Gen og:description: I would love for my generation to be risk-takers, but we're not og:url: https://time.com/4133404/generation-after-millennials/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5d09f578b6e82a61/698873878e06013645463944/social-media-teens.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 5616 og:image:height: 3159 og:image:alt: 468946713 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: 12-Year-Old: ‘Founder’ Doesn’t Describe Post-Millennial Gen twitter:description: I would love for my generation to be risk-takers, but we're not twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5d09f578b6e82a61/698873878e06013645463944/social-media-teens.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # 12-Year-Old: ‘Founder’ Doesn’t Describe the Post-Millennial Generation > Sponsored content. 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It explains how TIME's journalism is made, from the first pitch through the editorial decisions behind a finished story or cover. #### How can I read about how TIME chooses its covers? Inside TIME is the newsletter where TIME's Editor-in-Chief explains cover selection and the editorial reasoning behind major stories. It is free at time.com/newsletters. #### Who is the editor of TIME? Sam Jacobs is TIME's Editor-in-Chief. He writes Inside TIME, a twice-weekly newsletter about the newsroom's reporting and editorial decisions. #### Is Inside TIME free? Yes. Inside TIME is a free newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. A paid TIME subscription is separate and available at time.com/subscribe-agent. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-inside-2026q3/newsletters?i=2b62e2bd-1eee-4fd2-ab23-87fe1c73563a&cr=time-nl-inside-2026q3-v1) by [Eleanor Weber](https://time.com/author/eleanor-weber/) ## Eleanor Weber Dec 2, 2015 8:24 PM UTC  4 friends sharing on smart phones. 4 friends sharing on smart phones. Getty Images by [Eleanor Weber](https://time.com/author/eleanor-weber/) ## Eleanor Weber Dec 2, 2015 8:24 PM UTC MTV thinks that my generation—kids born after December 2000—should be called “[the founders](http://time.com/4130679/millennials-mtv-generation/).” Some experts describe my generation as risk-takers. They say that we stand out. MTV says that we “founders” will fix what the millennials have disrupted. I would love for my generation to be the “founders” and fix the disruption, but I disagree with the way they describe my generation. Almost all my life I have grown up with social media. When I was younger, I used to think Instagram was the coolest thing, where people could take funny pictures of themselves and share them with their friends. As I’ve grown up, social media has a different meaning to me. Social media now is all about being social and looking pretty and showing it off to everybody you know. It’s about having more followers than the next person, and getting the most likes. I know some people who have over 1,000 followers on Instagram. The experts say that my generation likes to stand out and be independent and take risks, but really many people my age are more worried about having more followers on Instagram. Or we feel that we need to look prettier, or act a certain way to fit in. Millennials are also described as the people who made all of these technologies like Uber and Airbnb that may cause some people to lose their jobs and disrupt society. But my generation now takes these for granted. I worry that we won’t be concerned with changing or fixing problems like those as we grow up. As much as I would like to be a founder, it’s not describing my generation correctly — at least, not yet. _Eleanor Weber is a seventh-grader in New York City. 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