Time magazine has named “You” as its person of the year, with a mirror cover designed to reflect the importance of user-generated internet content as a driving force in the modern world.

User-generated content on websites such as YouTube has proved the latest twist in the internet revolution, with the site attracting millions of users and earning its founders US$1.65 billion when it was bought by Google earlier this year.

Sites such as Flickr, MySpace and Wikipedia are prime examples of user-generated content, allowing ordinary people to upload online content, rather than relying on media professionals, as traditional websites have done.

“We’re making magazine history by putting out a cover like this,” said Time’s managing editor, Richard Stengel. “It’s absolutely very forward-looking,” he added.

“People will look at that in years from now and say: “Wow, they were onto something and the world is different now.'”

Time describes its person of the year not necessarily as an honor, but as “the person or persons who most affected the news and our lives, for good or for ill, and embodied what was important about the year.”