Beloit's The Mindset List for the Class of 2017

[methodwriter85]

   Beloit College just made their list where they try to tackle the mindset of the class of 2017. Always a fun read...

 

The Mindset List for the Class of 2017

 

For this generation of entering college students, born in 1995, Dean Martin, Mickey Mantle, and Jerry Garcia have always been dead.

1. Eminem and LL Cool J could show up at parents’ weekend.
2. They are the sharing generation, having shown tendencies to share everything, including possessions, no matter how personal.
3. GM means food that is Genetically Modified.
4. As they started to crawl, so did the news across the bottom of the television screen.
5. “Dude” has never had a negative tone.
6. As their parents held them as infants, they may have wondered whether it was the baby or Windows 95 that had them more excited.
7. As kids they may well have seen Chicken Run but probably never got chicken pox.
8. Having a chat has seldom involved talking.
9. Gaga has never been baby talk.
10. They could always get rid of their outdated toys on eBay.
11. They have known only two presidents.
12. Their TV screens keep getting smaller as their parents’ screens grow ever larger.
13. PayPal has replaced a pen pal as a best friend on line.
14. Rites of passage have more to do with having their own cell phone and Skype accounts than with getting a driver’s license and car.
15. The U.S. has always been trying to figure out which side to back in Middle East conflicts.
16. A tablet is no longer something you take in the morning.
17. Threatening to shut down the government during Federal budget negotiations has always been an anticipated tactic.
18. Growing up with the family dog, one of them has worn an electronic collar, while the other has toted an electronic lifeline.
19. Plasma has never been just a bodily fluid.
20. The Pentagon and Congress have always been shocked, absolutely shocked, by reports of sexual harassment and assault in the military.
21. Spray paint has never been legally sold in Chicago.
22. Captain Janeway has always taken the USS Voyager where no woman or man has ever gone before.
23. While they’ve grown up with a World Trade Organization, they have never known an Interstate Commerce Commission.
24. Courts have always been ordering computer network wiretaps.
25. Planes have never landed at Stapleton Airport in Denver.
26. Jurassic Park has always had rides and snack bars, not free-range triceratops and velociraptors.
27. Thanks to Megan’s Law and Amber Alerts, parents have always had community support in keeping children safe.
28. With GPS, they have never needed directions to get someplace, just an address.
29. Java has never been just a cup of coffee.
30. Americans and Russians have always cooperated better in orbit than on earth.
31. Olympic fever has always erupted every two years.
32. Their parents have always bemoaned the passing of precocious little Calvin and sarcastic stuffy Hobbes.
33. In their first 18 years, they have watched the rise and fall of Tiger Woods and Alex Rodriquez.
34. Yahoo has always been looking over its shoulder for the rise of “Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle.”
35. Congress has always been burdened by the requirement that they comply with the anti-discrimination and safety laws they passed for everybody else to follow.
36. The U.S. has always imposed economic sanctions against Iran.
37. The Celestine Prophecy has always been bringing forth a new age of spiritual insights.
38. Smokers in California have always been searching for their special areas, which have been harder to find each year.
39. They aren’t surprised to learn that the position of Top Spook at the CIA is an equal opportunity post.
40. They have never attended a concert in a smoke-filled arena.
41. As they slept safely in their cribs, the Oklahoma City bomber and the Unabomber were doing their deadly work.
42. There has never been a national maximum speed on U.S. highways.
43. Don Shula has always been a fine steak house.
44. Their favorite feature films have always been largely, if not totally, computer generated.
45. They have never really needed to go to their friend’s house so they could study together.
46. They have never seen the Bruins at Boston Garden, the Trailblazers at Memorial Coliseum, the Supersonics in Key Arena, or the Canucks at the Pacific Coliseum.
47. Dayton, Ohio, has always been critical to international peace accords.
48. Kevin Bacon has always maintained six degrees of separation in the cinematic universe.
49. They may have been introduced to video games with a new Sony PlayStation left in their cribs by their moms.
50. A Wiki has always been a cooperative web application rather than a shuttle bus in Hawaii.
51. The Canadian Football League Stallions have always sung Alouette in Montreal after bidding adieu to Baltimore.
52. They have always been able to plug into USB ports
53. Olestra has always had consumers worried about side effects.
54. Washington, D.C., tour buses have never been able to drive in front of the White House.
55. Being selected by Oprah’s Book Club has always read “success.”
56. There has never been a Barings Bank in England.
57. Their parents’ car CD player is soooooo ancient and embarrassing.
58. New York’s Times Square has always had a splash of the Magic Kingdom in it.
59. Bill Maher has always been politically incorrect.
60. They have always known that there are “five hundred and twenty five thousand, six hundred minutes in a year.”

***

 

      My niece is starting college this year...she was born in December 1994 instead of in '95, but still pretty close enough.

  

      It's weird to think that today's college freshman has literally never known a world without mainstream Internet. Also the idea that they've only really experienced two presidents, as they would've been 5 at the end of the Clinton administration. When I was their age I had already experienced Bush I, Clinton, and Dubya.

Edited August 24, 2013 by methodwriter85

[thebrinkoftime]

I wasn't born in 1995, but my memory starts around that time. Not being American or a native English speaker, a lot of these don't apply to me, but...

 

Eminem and LL Cool J could show up at parents’ weekend.

 

Why wouldn't they? As you can see in that embarassing country music collaboration earlier this year, LL Cool J is an irrelevant old man and hasn't Eminem always had a daughter? Also, what's parents' weekend? Is it like a senior citizen discount?

 

They are the sharing generation, having shown tendencies to share everything, including possessions, no matter how personal.

 

???

 

This puzzles me. Why wouldn't you share something if somebody needs or wants it and you don't? Is this really so different? Do they mean internet sharing?

 

GM means food that is Genetically Modified.

 

This is American English, so...Gay Male, General Mills, Georgia on my Mind? What else would it stand for?

 

As they started to crawl, so did the news across the bottom of the television screen.

 

I'm not sure about before or after I learned to crawl, but I can't remember a time when this wasn't the case. It's not exactly high tech, is it?

 

“Dude” has never had a negative tone.

 

Has it ever had a negative tone?

 

Their TV screens keep getting smaller as their parents’ screens grow ever larger.

 

The first TV I ever owned was on my cell phone in high school, so yeah I guess, but my parents were never really into the "bigger is better" thing.

 

Rites of passage have more to do with having their own cell phone and Skype accounts than with getting a driver’s license and car.

 

I guess so. I got my first cell phone when I was 10 and I still have neither a driver's license, nor a car, nor do I want either. Skype can go suck a dick though.

 

While they’ve grown up with a World Trade Organization, they have never known an Interstate Commerce Commission.

 

Well, I remember thinking when it got hit, "The what?" I had no idea there was any such thing as a World Trade Organization before that infamous day. And yeah, I truly have no idea what the Interstate Commerce Commission was or is, though I'm assuming it was some sort of pre-World Trade Organization?

 

Java has never been just a cup of coffee.

 

I remember thinking, "Oh, so that's why it looks like a cup of coffee!"

 

Olympic fever has always erupted every two years.

 

Well, yeah? I thought the Olympics restarted around the turn of last century and the Winter Olympics alternating with Summer every two years has been a tradition since the Winter Olympics were invented?

 

Their parents have always bemoaned the passing of precocious little Calvin and sarcastic stuffy Hobbes.

 

Now wait a minute! I object! Everybody knows (and better love) Calvin and Hobbes! It has nothing to do with age! No kid should ever do without dinosaurs in F-15s, Spaceman Spiff or contemplative sled rides with Hobbes. Though I will admit, some of the strips I read as a kid made me scratch my head and now as I re-read them, I can understand them better.

 

 

Smokers in California have always been searching for their special areas, which have been harder to find each year.

 

They have never attended a concert in a smoke-filled arena.

 

Eh? This isn't just in California! I mean, it's just common sense for it to work like this, isn't it? You have to protect people from insensitive jerks who would expose them to second-hand smoke. It isn't like we're in the 1930s and 40s where people weren't aware of just how bad it was for you.

 

They may have been introduced to video games with a new Sony PlayStation left in their cribs by their moms.

 

I'm not sure what the first video game I actually ever played was, but the first one I can remember is Ridge Racer.

 

A Wiki has always been a cooperative web application rather than a shuttle bus in Hawaii.

 

This seems kind of strange. Unless it was the name of some exotic bird, did Wiki ever really mean anything to the greater majority of people before Wikipedia? I can't imagine a Hawaiian shuttle bus was all that well-known.

 

They have always been able to plug into USB ports

 

I've seen older computers before, I've even used older computers before. The only thing I can remember is there was some place with a lot of holes for you to stick the mouse in. And then the really old computers, you couldn't use a mouse and were the keyboards stuck together with the computer...I don't remember. Now I feel weird. I feel certain there must been something out there, but what on earth did they do before USB when they wanted to plug something in?

 

Their parents’ car CD player is soooooo ancient and embarrassing.

 

I've never even heard of this. Though I've seen CD players in electronics stores before, and of course I've put a CD into a computer before, I've never owned one. I always feel like owning a CD player wouldn't be worth the money when you can just put it in the computer and rip MP3s from it. I imagine it's only really useful for DJs or musicians.

 

They have always known that there are “five hundred and twenty five thousand, six hundred minutes in a year.”

 

I cannot stand that song, or the musical it comes from. It makes me want to claw at things.

[Henry_Henry2012]

 

They are the sharing generation, having shown tendencies to share everything, including possessions, no matter how personal.

 

???

 

This puzzles me. Why wouldn't you share something if somebody needs or wants it and you don't? Is this really so different? Do they mean internet sharing?

 

I think this is in reference to kids who doesn't know the word 'propriety' in a sense of personal ownership. Ever heard the term 'online bullying' wherein one would post incriminating photos of him/herself online and then would be considered a target for bullies through online sharing of the said photo.

 

The thing is, people share photos nowadays and gladly post information about themselves, and I think this generation in particular has a lesser idea - unless they become a target of choice - of the importance of sharing things online.

 

In a social media generation where this gen was born unto, they're more excited about posting a photo and getting likes than the essence of having a memory caught through a film negative. 

 

It's more like, "I caught the moment, I'ma post this beeyotch on the net cause I'm hot!" sort of mentality.

[iSimba]

This is 100% true. 

[methodwriter85]

 

Well, yeah? I thought the Olympics restarted around the turn of last century and the Winter Olympics alternating with Summer every two years has been a tradition since the Winter Olympics were invented?

 

      Winter and summer Olympics were the same year every 4 years until 1994. The last year that winter and summer Olympics were held in the same year was in 1992; then the winter Olympics split off and held the next one in 1994 instead of 1996, while the Summer Olympics were held in 1996 like usual.

 

      I have pretty strong memories of the '94 Winter Olympics because that was when the whole Nancy Kerrigan/Tonya Harding thing happened.

Edited August 24, 2013 by methodwriter85

[Thorn Wilde]

Smokers in California have always been searching for their special areas, which have been harder to find each year.

 

They have never attended a concert in a smoke-filled arena.

 

Eh? This isn't just in California! I mean, it's just common sense for it to work like this, isn't it? You have to protect people from insensitive jerks who would expose them to second-hand smoke. It isn't like we're in the 1930s and 40s where people weren't aware of just how bad it was for you.

 

They have always been able to plug into USB ports

 

I've seen older computers before, I've even used older computers before. The only thing I can remember is there was some place with a lot of holes for you to stick the mouse in. And then the really old computers, you couldn't use a mouse and were the keyboards stuck together with the computer...I don't remember. Now I feel weird. I feel certain there must been something out there, but what on earth did they do before USB when they wanted to plug something in?

 

Their parents’ car CD player is soooooo ancient and embarrassing.

 

I've never even heard of this. Though I've seen CD players in electronics stores before, and of course I've put a CD into a computer before, I've never owned one. I always feel like owning a CD player wouldn't be worth the money when you can just put it in the computer and rip MP3s from it. I imagine it's only really useful for DJs or musicians.

 

 

Wait, I'm, what, a year older than you? I had a fricking walkman. Not the walkman phone, the actual walkman, the one you put cassette tapes into? I had one of those. And then, when CDs really hit big, I got a Discman instead, so I could listen to music on the go. I even had time to have a MiniDisk before Apple came with the iPod that really put mp3-players on the market.

 

Now, I know it wasn't exactly common in 1994 to have your own computer if you were 5, but my dad worked with computers so I've always been surrounded by computer stuff. I used to play with circuit boards in his study while he coded, so... Yeah. I remember exactly when I started using USB-stuff, and that honestly can't have been until about 2001 in my case... Around the time I got my MiniDisk The computer I had before then had its own ports for the mouse and keyboard, and there wasn't much else to plug in. Hell, in 2003 my computer still had a floppy-drive, which I still used.

 

As for the smoking thing, my parents would bring me to concerts when I was a kid, and we are talking seriously smoky folk clubs here. I remember when the indoor smoking laws passed in my country; it was the 1st of January 2004, and in December I sat in a café with my then boyfriend, who smoked, and his best friend, and they were lamenting the passing of the law and having to go out into the cold to smoke between coffees after the new year.

      Winter and summer Olympics were the same year every 4 years until 1994. The last year that winter and summer Olympics were held in the same year was in 1992; then the winter Olympics split off and held the next one in 1994 instead of 1996, while the Summer Olympics were held in 1996 like usual.

 

      I have pretty strong memories of the '94 Winter Olympics because that was when the whole Nancy Kerrigan/Tonya Harding thing happened.

 

I have pretty strong memories on the '94 Winter Olympics because they were held in Norway and you just! Couldn't! Get! Away! Olympics, everywhere!! They even gave us a longer winter break that year, two weeks instead of one. It was crazy.

Edited August 24, 2013 by Thorn Wilde

[thebrinkoftime]

As for the smoking thing, my parents would bring me to concerts when I was a kid, and we are talking seriously smoky folk clubs here. I remember when the indoor smoking laws passed in my country; it was the 1st of January 2004, and in December I sat in a café with my then boyfriend, who smoked, and his best friend, and they were lamenting the passing of the law and having to go out into the cold to smoke between coffees after the new year.

 

 

I have a pretty funny story about this. I don't remember exactly when it was, so let's just say it was around the time when I was still trying to figure out what happens to the poor people trapped inside the TV when you turn it off. One day in a morals and values class at school, the teacher was going over what you should say to grown-ups who are doing things you don't like and somebody brought up smoking. We'd all seen the demonstration of the robot smoking five cigarettes. The teacher asked what you should say if somebody starts smoking around you. So I raised my hand and when the teacher called on me, I answered,

 

"You should shoot them."

 

Later that day, when my dad came to pick me up, my teacher talked to him about what I said. I distinctly remember getting a nasty look from him before he turned to the teacher, thanked her and nodded. Before we got home, he took me to a secluded area where nobody was around and took out his gun. He showed it to me and said, "Have you ever touched this or anything like it before?"

 

I shook my head.

 

"Good. Do you want to?"

 

I shook my head.

 

"Good. Are you ever going to touch a lethal weapon like this?"

 

I shook my head.

 

"Good, because if you ever even so much as come to think that touching one of these is cool, do you know what I'm going to do?"

 

I shook my head.

 

He took the gun and aimed it right between my eyes. "Do you know what I'm going to do?"

 

I furiously nodded my head.

 

"Good. That's settled. Now for smoking. Who's allowed to smoke?"

 

"Grown-ups."

 

"That's right. Why don't they smoke around kids?"

 

"Because it's bad for us."

 

"That's right too. Now then, when you overheard me saying I should shoot anyone who smokes around you or the other boys, who was I talking to?"

 

"A grown-up."

 

"Do you think grown-ups are allowed to talk like that?"

 

I nodded. "That's right. Do you think kids are allowed to talk like that?"

 

I shook my head.

 

"When are you allowed to talk like that?"

 

"When I'm a grown-up?"

 

"Yup. Now until then, what do you think I'm going to do if I see you talking like that or smoking?"

 

I was really, profoundly nervous. "S-s-shoot me?"

 

My dad started laughing uncontrollably at the look on my face and stooped down and gave me a big kiss and looked into my eyes and said very slowly, "The reason you think that is because you're not an adult yet."

 

He stood back up again and said to me, "Now you embarassed yourself, me and your family. What do you think I'm going to do about that?" I had no idea. He put the gun in his mouth. I started freaking out. I heard a loud crunching sound and when he took the gun out of his mouth, a good piece of the barrel was missing. I looked at him like he was Superman. "My dad just ate a gun!" I thought. He handed it to me and I looked at him like he had completely lost his mind. Hadn't he just told me I was never to so much as think it was alright to touch a gun?

 

"Not this one, my dear little idiot boy--" my dad's term for us whenever we messed up (if you can read Japanese, 大好きなアホ君), "this one's chocolate. Have a bite."

[Thorn Wilde]

[everything he just wrote]

 

I fucking love your dad! 

[Bill W]

How about two more.  There has always been a tunnel connecting England and France.  There has always been talk of hybrid cars. 

[methodwriter85]

    There has never been a world without the Macarena:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XiBYM6g8Tck

 

    This version came out in 1996, but the Spanish version of the song came out in 1995.

Edited August 24, 2013 by methodwriter85

[iSimba]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/24/technology-kids_n_3751012.html?ncid=edlinkusaolp00000003

 

On that list, I haven't used/seen most of it, and I'll be quite honest, I'm not envious at ALL.

[methodwriter85]

 

On that list, I haven't used/seen most of it, and I'll be quite honest, I'm not envious at ALL.

   Here's something to be envious about:

 

Average cost of in-state tution at a University in 1993:

 

$4,064 per year (in 2013 dollars) at a public school

$21,592 per year (in 2013 dollars) at a private school

 

Average cost of in-state tutition at a University in 2012-2013:

 

$8,655 per year at a public school

$29,055 per year at a private school

 

     I think the idea that you can go to a 4-year, public university for under 20k for the entire time is going to become a pretty foreign thought, especially in the U.S. (Canada seems to be much more reasonable.) The average college kid is spending, on average, about 12k more for public college than did his 1993 counterpart for their 4-year education, while the private school person spends about 32k more.

Edited August 25, 2013 by methodwriter85

[Thorn Wilde]

   Here's something to be envious about:

 

Average cost of in-state tution at a University in 1993:

 

$4,064 per year (in 2013 dollars) at a public school

$21,592 per year (in 2013 dollars) at a private school

 

Average cost of in-state tutition at a University in 2012-2013:

 

$8,655 per year at a public school

$29,055 per year at a private school

 

     I think the idea that you can go to a 4-year, public university for under 20k for the entire time is going to become a pretty foreign thought, especially in the U.S. (Canada seems to be much more reasonable.) The average college kid is spending, on average, about 12k more for public college than did his 1993 counterpart for their 4-year education, while the private school person spends about 32k more.

 

In my country, university tuition is free. Private academies cost money, but if they take more than a certain amount in tuition, they don't get any subsidies and the students don't get loans, so it's not really worth it.