The Guardian.

Hi, my name is Simian Brown.

You usually would probably watch me on television, on channel four news.

I'm a correspondent.

I'm also a writer and an author.

And the piece you're about to listen to is what I have been spending my last few years

basically investigating.

I remember when I was going on to Instagram and I would just see that all these young people

appeared to be ridiculously just rich and wealthy.

And these were young people who was clear didn't have a particularly good education.

They came from the working class areas of the cities they were living in.

And I would try and understand what was going on here because it was more than just

bravado and faking it.

Although of course there was a lot of faking going on.

But there was a lot more to it.

And so as I began to investigate it and stumble down various rabbit holes,

what I found was effectively the economic story of an entire Instagram generation.

You know, I found a massive pyramid scheme, but it was more than a pyramid scheme.

It was about effectively a way of life for young millennials who have been excluded

from the ability to make huge amounts of money because they're not necessarily seen as

talented so venture capitalists are not going to invest in their companies.

They haven't had the greatest education.

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