MTV has a curious name for the post-Millennial generation
Step aside, Millennials — it's the dawn of the Founders. While 18- to 34-year-olds in the United States already have a (maybe derogatory) term to identify themselves, the youngest generation in America hadn't yet found a firm moniker. Thankfully, MTV has stepped in.
The network has been studying kids born after December 2000 for several years, and in a survey of 1,000 youths in March, they decided to try to find a better fitting name than some of those that have already been proposed: Gen Z, iGen, Posts, Homeland Generation, ReGen, or Plurals. MTV arrived at some finalists of their own, including the Navigators, the Regenerators, and the Builders, but ultimately settled on the Founders as their preferred label.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Research identifies the Founders group as being more pragmatic and independent than their Millennial counterparts, having grown up with realist Gen X parents rather than optimistic Baby Boomer mothers and fathers. MTV President Sean Atkins said the name specifically speaks to the fact that while the Millennials "disrupted," the younger generation has it on themselves to rebuild. What's more, they're diverse, they're comfortable standing out, and they've never known a world that wasn't digital. Not only that, but they're getting older — and will soon be the core target demographic of many companies, MTV included.
Learn more about the Founders below. Jeva Lange
-
What will the US economy look like in 2026?Today’s Big Question Wall Street is bullish, but uncertain
-
Alaa Abd el-Fattah: should Egyptian dissident be stripped of UK citizenship?Today's Big Question Resurfaced social media posts appear to show the democracy activist calling for the killing of Zionists and police
-
Biggest political break-ups and make-ups of 2025The Explainer From Trump and Musk to the UK and the EU, Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without a round-up of the year’s relationship drama
-
Son arrested over killing of Rob and Michele ReinerSpeed Read Nick, the 32-year-old son of Hollywood director Rob Reiner, has been booked for the murder of his parents
-
Rob Reiner, wife dead in ‘apparent homicide’speed read The Reiners, found in their Los Angeles home, ‘had injuries consistent with being stabbed’
-
Hungary’s Krasznahorkai wins Nobel for literatureSpeed Read László Krasznahorkai is the author of acclaimed novels like ‘The Melancholy of Resistance’ and ‘Satantango’
-
Primatologist Jane Goodall dies at 91Speed Read She rose to fame following her groundbreaking field research with chimpanzees
-
Florida erases rainbow crosswalk at Pulse nightclubSpeed Read The colorful crosswalk was outside the former LGBTQ nightclub where 49 people were killed in a 2016 shooting
-
Trump says Smithsonian too focused on slavery's illsSpeed Read The president would prefer the museum to highlight 'success,' 'brightness' and 'the future'
-
Trump to host Kennedy Honors for Kiss, StalloneSpeed Read Actor Sylvester Stallone and the glam-rock band Kiss were among those named as this year's inductees
-
White House seeks to bend Smithsonian to Trump's viewSpeed Read The Smithsonian Institution's 21 museums are under review to ensure their content aligns with the president's interpretation of American history
