Mark Zuckerberg said he’s the most well-known millennial in a newly revealed email. So, is he?
Mark Zuckerberg, who just celebrated his 40th birthday, is a millennial. But is he the most famous millennial? He thinks so.
In a 2020 email exchange posted by the Internal Tech Emails newsletter, Zuckerberg sent an email to Meta’s public-policy head, Nick Clegg, Peter Thiel (who was on the Facebook board at the time), Sheryl Sandberg, Antonio Lucio, and Marc Andreessen, discussing his public image as a millennial.
The emails were released as part of legal documents in Tennessee v. Meta, one of several lawsuits in which states are suing Meta over its role in harm to children.
In the email exchange, Zuckerberg said that he and Thiel had been having discussions about the future, how power would shift from baby boomers to millennials (sorry, Gen X, erased again), and how they should focus on thinking about policies that would affect the younger generation. (Meta declined to comment on these emails or Zuckerberg’s fame standings.)
Then, Zuckerberg wrote:
So, is he the most well-known person of his generation?
Put aside for a moment the ick of seeing someone say that in an email. And well, he does have a point. He’s got to be at least one of the most famous millennials — especially if you’re thinking globally, not just in the US.
Globally, there are billions of people who use Facebook. That doesn’t necessarily mean everyone knows that it’s run by a guy named Mark, but probably a good chunk of them do. Young people, old people, people in every country.
It’s nearly impossible to fact-check his claim, however, because there isn’t a clear way to quantify fame.
You can look at social-media followings, focus-group surveys like Q Score, or how many pages of Google results there are. There are also several academic papers that attempt to come up with new mathematical formulas to measure fame. A 2018 physics paper created a model that attempted to calculate the fame of people who died between 2016 and 2017, and came up with Muhammad Ali as the most famous (sounds about right).
Without a concrete measurement of fame, we can speculate on some other top contenders.
Who else could be the most well-known millennial?
Justin Bieber: Unlikely to be the most famous. Although he was intensely famous for a few years, I don’t think his fame permeated enough past the membrane of his fellow millennial pop-music fans.
LeBron James: He’s a strong contender, but basketball isn’t the most popular sport globally.
Cristiano Ronaldo: He has the most Instagram followers, although I think that’s not a perfect measurement because it doesn’t encompass all the young kids and others not using the app. His celebrity in the US is likely less than Zuckerberg’s, but I’m pretty sure he’d beat the Meta chief on a global scale.
Lionel Messi: As a non-soccer fan, I don’t want to attempt to litigate the popularity between Messi and Ronaldo, although I will say Ronaldo’s Instagram stats seem to put him ahead.
Beyoncé: She is very, very famous. More famous than Zuck? Maybe. Probably? I think so.
Taylor Swift: Today, I think Swift would be the answer for most famous. But this email was from early 2020, just between “Lover” and “Folklore.” Very well known, but more so today than four years ago.
Shakira: Born in 1977! Not a millennial!
Prince William: Pretty well known! But between him and Zuckerberg in 2020? I think it’s a toss-up.
Kim Jong Un: I mean, he is a very well-known millennial.
Ultimately, reasonable people can disagree on who is the most well-known millennial. But Zuckerberg probably isn’t too far off.
