Funny how that works.
The Beloit College Mindset List for the Class of 2014
The Beloit College Mindset List for the Class of 2014
Most students entering college for the first time this fall—the Class of 2014—were born in 1992.
For these students, Benny Hill, Sam Kinison, Sam Walton, Bert Parks and Tony Perkins have always been dead.
1. Few in the class know how to write in cursive.
2. Email is just too slow, and they seldom if ever use snail mail.
3. “Go West, Young College Grad” has always implied “and don’t stop until you get to Asia…and learn Chinese along the way.”
4. Al Gore has always been animated.
5. Los Angelinos have always been trying to get along.
6. Buffy has always been meeting her obligations to hunt down Lothos and the other blood-suckers at Hemery High.
7. “Caramel macchiato” and “venti half-caf vanilla latte” have always been street corner lingo.
8. With increasing numbers of ramps, Braille signs, and handicapped parking spaces, the world has always been trying harder to accommodate people with disabilities.
9. Had it remained operational, the villainous computer HAL could be their college classmate this fall, but they have a better chance of running into Miley Cyrus’s folks on Parents’ Weekend.
10. A quarter of the class has at least one immigrant parent, and the immigration debate is not a big priority…unless it involves “real” aliens from another planet.
11. John McEnroe has never played professional tennis.
12. Clint Eastwood is better known as a sensitive director than as Dirty Harry.
13. Parents and teachers feared that Beavis and Butt-head might be the voice of a lost generation.
14. Doctor Kevorkian has never been licensed to practice medicine.
15. Colorful lapel ribbons have always been worn to indicate support for a cause.
16. Korean cars have always been a staple on American highways.
17. Trading Chocolate the Moose for Patti the Platypus helped build their Beanie Baby collection.
18. Fergie is a pop singer, not a princess.
19. They never twisted the coiled handset wire aimlessly around their wrists while chatting on the phone.
20. DNA fingerprinting and maps of the human genome have always existed.
21. Woody Allen, whose heart has wanted what it wanted, has always been with Soon-Yi Previn.
22. Cross-burning has always been deemed protected speech.
23. Leasing has always allowed the folks to upgrade their tastes in cars.
24. “Cop Killer” by rapper Ice-T has never been available on a recording.
25. Leno and Letterman have always been trading insults on opposing networks.
26. Unless they found one in their grandparents’ closet, they have never seen a carousel of Kodachrome slides.
27. Computers have never lacked a CD-ROM disk drive.
28. They’ve never recognized that pointing to their wrists was a request for the time of day.
29. Reggie Jackson has always been enshrined in Cooperstown.
30. “Viewer Discretion” has always been an available warning on TV shows.
31. The first computer they probably touched was an Apple II; it is now in a museum.
32. Czechoslovakia has never existed.
33. Second-hand smoke has always been an official carcinogen.
34. “Assisted Living” has always been replacing nursing homes, while Hospice has always been an alternative to hospitals.
35. Once they got through security, going to the airport has always resembled going to the mall.
36. Adhesive strips have always been available in varying skin tones.
37. Whatever their parents may have thought about the year they were born, Queen Elizabeth declared it an “Annus Horribilis.”
38. Bud Selig has always been the Commissioner of Major League Baseball.
39. Pizza jockeys from Domino’s have never killed themselves to get your pizza there in under 30 minutes.
40. There have always been HIV positive athletes in the Olympics.
41. American companies have always done business in Vietnam.
42. Potato has always ended in an “e” in New Jersey per vice presidential edict.
43. Russians and Americans have always been living together in space.
44. The dominance of television news by the three networks passed while they were still in their cribs.
45. They have always had a chance to do community service with local and federal programs to earn money for college.
46. Nirvana is on the classic oldies station.
47. Children have always been trying to divorce their parents.
48. Someone has always gotten married in space.
49. While they were babbling in strollers, there was already a female Poet Laureate of the United States.
50. Toothpaste tubes have always stood up on their caps.
51. Food has always been irradiated.
52. There have always been women priests in the Anglican Church.
53. J.R. Ewing has always been dead and gone. Hasn’t he?
54. The historic bridge at Mostar in Bosnia has always been a copy.
55. Rock bands have always played at presidential inaugural parties.
56. They may have assumed that parents’ complaints about Black Monday had to do with punk rockers from L.A., not Wall Street.
57. A purple dinosaur has always supplanted Barney Google and Barney Fife.
58. Beethoven has always been a dog.
59. By the time their folks might have noticed Coca Cola’s new Tab Clear, it was gone.
60. Walmart has never sold handguns over the counter in the lower 48.
61. Presidential appointees have always been required to be more precise about paying their nannies’ withholding tax, or else.
62. Having hundreds of cable channels but nothing to watch has always been routine.
63. Their parents’ favorite TV sitcoms have always been showing up as movies.
64. The U.S, Canada, and Mexico have always agreed to trade freely.
65. They first met Michelangelo when he was just a computer virus.
66. Galileo is forgiven and welcome back into the Roman Catholic Church.
67. Ruth Bader Ginsburg has always sat on the Supreme Court.
68. They have never worried about a Russian missile strike on the U.S.
69. The Post Office has always been going broke.
70. The artist formerly known as Snoop Doggy Dogg has always been rapping.
71. The nation has never approved of the job Congress is doing.
72. One way or another, “It’s the economy, stupid” and always has been.
73. Silicone-gel breast implants have always been regulated.
74. They’ve always been able to blast off with the Sci-Fi Channel.
75. Honda has always been a major competitor on Memorial Day at Indianapolis.
...and even fewer know how to write a coherent sentence in English.
Forget Czechoslovvkia...the bleedin' USSR has never existed. And Boris Yeltsin went from being a Russian national hero to being a pathetic, drunken spectacle before they figured out how to use the toilet.
The Wall fell near the start of my sophomore year in HS, with the USSR following in the first semester senior year.
Other ones they forgot: 76. Saddam Hussein was never on America's 'side.' (Enemy of our enemy, and all that.)
77. Ollie North has always been a correspondent for Fox News.
78. The last time a Canadian hockey team won the Stanley Cup (Montreal Canadiens 1992-93 season) they were still in diapers.
... or had a 5.25" floppy drive. Or a monochrome monitor. Or screen resolutions less than 800x600.
80. The Catholic Church never spoke Latin.
81. Hand signals were never used while driving unless you want to pop someone the bird.
82. The Pope was never Italian.
These kids were more afraid of tornadoes than WWIII. After all, schools have tornado drills. It's not like anyone has ever had nuclear bomb drills or anyth... uh... nevermind. Oh sure, they TALK about being afraid of nuclear armeggedon, but they never viscerally experienced it. And hell... even I'm a piker in that arena. I was born in the Nixon administration. The Cuban Missile Crisis was history for me. And I honestly doubt we've ever been closer to nuclear annihilation that that week.
84. Water always came in bottles.
85. Paris Hilton is not a hotel in France.
Or of the Nike missile battery at Fort Leavenworth erecting the missiles as we were playing nearby. That was routine - but think about that, nuke-tipped air defense missile batteries in the heartland.
I've done the "duck and cover" under the school desk.
I've used 8 inch floppys, too. Not, not pr0n-related.
And I remember the electricity at Patch Barracks when the Six Day War kicked off. Didn't see Dad for over a week.
And I picked up the PNL (Primary Nuclear Load) twice during the Reagan/Brezhnev years of forced blinks, while stationed in Germany.
I've walked into a nuke weapons storage bunker in January, opened a casket for a serial number inventory, and felt the warm air puff from the storage container.
Heh. I remember, when visiting relatives in Arkansas when I was but a wee lad, seeing the "Whites Only" and "Coloreds Only" signs. Didn't have a clue what they meant.
Of course, Bill remembers the fall of the wall as if it was yesterday. At Jericho.
Punch Cards!!! and Royal Post Canada.
Cheers
87. Everyone has always had a cellphone or pager
88. Until Obama there has always been a Bush/Republican as President
89. Galileo was never edicted
90. The Falu Copper mine has never been in operation
My ears are *still* ringing from those damn horns.
I came back from 'Nam in '69. Watched the Moon Landing on TV AND went to Woodstock.
I keep running into youngins that have no/zero/nil idea what any of those references mean.
"I keep running into youngins that have no/zero/nil idea of what those references mean."
Why do you think this happens? Is this about the youngins, parents or even grandparents? When you begin to understand, it changes your whole view. This is *not* blame, it's about responsibility up the line *and* down the line. My Dad had one basic rule, "Don't embarrass the Family!" It keeps you grounded, not as a punishment, but stable. I had already seen more than most people see in their worst nightmare, multiplied by infinity. I had no interest in Woodstock. I had offers, but no interest.
One last question, would you please define the term, "youngins?"
You talked about 'Nam 69, Landing on the Moon and Woodstock. I wanted to go to Woodstock, but my body said, in no uncertain terms, "NO!" My body grabbed me by the 'brass jewels' and said, "Now do I have your attention? Is this a debate" I replied, "You have a firm grasp of the issues, no debate from me!"
Thank you, for your Service in 'Nam 69, they were tough years, but I 'm also glad you went to Woodstock. About the "youngins' definition, " You know the person is no longer a youngin when they know better and apply it."
This was in Southern Florida.
Actually, they might be more likely to remember first meeting him as the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle with the orange mask and the nunchaku. Did no one else in the thread have kids of this vintage, or were they just not paying attention to their children's lives? (OK, I cheated. I had to turn to Wikipedia to find out which one he was.)
Missiles? Piffle. We used to see these around NYC.
Navig8r - remember, the initial list is *not* ours. We're adding to it. The initial list is by two Profs (at least one in his 60's) at Beloit College. This list is as much about how old they feel (hence my lead-in) as it is anything else. I'm assuming you didn't click the link. Prodigal Son, along with another juvenile delinquent of his acquaintance, flooded his upstairs bedroom making a swamp for the Turtles. SWWBO was SWIVMNA* that day, I can tell you.
*She Who Is Very Much NOT Amused.
Called bratty friend's parents immediately to come and fetch him or I might kill him along with PS.
Someone has to take care of us in our dotage.
So...
Grumpy asked me for my definition of 'youngins'? Nominally; those younger than 30 and educated in public schools.
Why do I think 'this' happens? There are some explicit and some implicit causes, but. as the list above suggests, is likely no more than a normal shift in the national zeitgeist.
Still, it does make for some mildly awkward moments.
I enlisted in the Air Force, primarily for technologies. I had my "Dream Sheet" for orders, only to have life rip them out of my hands, at its own timing.
The events which had the greatest impact on This Nation's 'youngins' are the advent of the home computer and 9/11/2001. Even though out of the Military, I found my place.
Got a young SSGT (on line) friend who is heading back to A'stan from his mid-tour leave just now. He is full tilt into the whole SCA world.
Seems he's not alone either. He does sword fighting practice in A'stan when he can.
The picture of this young fellow surrounded by 21st century weapons and tech, further surrounded by a country barely out of the 7th century trying to find someone to cross swords with kinda cracks me up.
Greetings from Mostar.