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The Mindset List


ZJJ

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  • 2 years later...

I'm behind in posting my annual mindset list. :o

2016

This year’s entering college class of 2016 was born into cyberspace and they have therefore measured their output in the fundamental particles of life: bits, bytes, and bauds. They have come to political consciousness during a time of increasing doubts about America’s future, and are entering college bombarded by questions about jobs and the value of a college degree. They have never needed an actual airline “ticket,” a set of bound encyclopedias, or Romper Room. Members of this year’s freshman class, most of them born in 1994, are probably the most tribal generation in history and they despise being separated from contact with friends. They prefer to watch television everywhere except on a television, have seen a woman lead the U.S. State Department for most of their lives, and can carry school books--those that are not on their e-Readers--in backpacks that roll.

The class of 2016 was born the year of the professional baseball strike and the last year for NFL football in Los Angeles. They have spent much of their lives helping their parents understand that you don’t take pictures on “film” and that CDs and DVDs are not “tapes.” Those parents have been able to review the crime statistics for the colleges their children have applied to and then pop an Aleve as needed. In these students’ lifetimes, with MP3 players and iPods, they seldom listen to the car radio. A quarter of the entering students already have suffered some hearing loss. Since they've been born, the United States has measured progress by a 2 percent jump in unemployment and a 16-cent rise in the price of a first class postage stamp.

For those who cannot comprehend that it has been 18 years since this year’s entering college students were born, they should recognize that the next four years will go even faster, confirming the authors’ belief that “generation gaps have always needed glue.”

The Mindset List for the Class of 2016

For this generation of entering college students, born in 1994, Kurt Cobain, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Richard Nixon and John Wayne Gacy have always been dead.

  1. They should keep their eyes open for Justin Bieber or Dakota Fanning at freshman orientation.
  2. They have always lived in cyberspace, addicted to a new generation of “electronic narcotics.”
  3. The Biblical sources of terms such as “Forbidden Fruit,” “The writing on the wall,” “Good Samaritan,” and “The Promised Land” are unknown to most of them.
  4. Michael Jackson’s family, not the Kennedys, constitutes “American Royalty.”
  5. If they miss The Daily Show, they can always get their news on YouTube.
  6. Their lives have been measured in the fundamental particles of life: bits, bytes, and bauds.
  7. Robert De Niro is thought of as Greg Focker's long-suffering father-in-law, not as Vito Corleone or Jimmy Conway.
  8. Bill Clinton is a senior statesman of whose presidency they have little knowledge.
  9. They have never seen an airplane “ticket.”
  10. On TV and in films, the ditzy dumb blonde female generally has been replaced by a couple of Dumb and Dumber males.
  11. The paradox "too big to fail" has been, for their generation, what "we had to destroy the village in order to save it" was for their grandparents'.
  12. For most of their lives, maintaining relations between the U.S. and the rest of the world has been a woman’s job in the State Department.
  13. They can’t picture people actually carrying luggage through airports rather than rolling it.
  14. There has always been football in Jacksonville but never in Los Angeles.
  15. While still fans of music on radio, they often listen to it on their laptops or replace it with music downloaded onto their MP3s and iPods.
  16. Since they've been born, the United States has measured progress by a 2 percent jump in unemployment and a 16 cent rise in the price of a first class postage stamp.
  17. Benjamin Braddock, having given up both a career in plastics and a relationship with Mrs. Robinson, could be their grandfather.
  18. Their folks have never gazed with pride on a new set of bound encyclopedias on the bookshelf.
  19. The Green Bay Packers have always celebrated with the Lambeau Leap.
  20. Exposed bra straps have always been a fashion statement, not a wardrobe malfunction to be corrected quietly by well-meaning friends.
  21. A significant percentage of them will enter college already displaying some hearing loss.
  22. The Real World has always stopped being polite and started getting real on MTV.
  23. Women have always piloted war planes and space shuttles.
  24. White House security has never felt it necessary to wear rubber gloves when gay groups have visited.
  25. They have lived in an era of instant stardom and self-proclaimed celebrities, famous for being famous.
  26. Having made the acquaintance of Furby at an early age, they have expected their toy friends to do ever more unpredictable things.
  27. Outdated icons with images of floppy discs for “save,” a telephone for “phone,” and a snail mail envelope for “mail” have oddly decorated their tablets and smart phone screens.
  28. Star Wars has always been just a film, not a defense strategy.
  29. They have had to incessantly remind their parents not to refer to their CDs and DVDs as “tapes.”
  30. There have always been blue M&Ms, but no tan ones.’
  31. Along with online viewbooks, parents have always been able to check the crime stats for the colleges their kids have selected.
  32. Newt Gingrich has always been a key figure in politics, trying to change the way America thinks about everything.
  33. They have come to political consciousness during a time of increasing doubts about America’s future.
  34. Billy Graham is as familiar to them as Otto Graham was to their parents.
  35. Probably the most tribal generation in history, they despise being separated from contact with their similar-aged friends.
  36. Stephen Breyer has always been an Associate Justice on the U.S. Supreme Court.
  37. Martin Lawrence has always been banned from hosting Saturday Night Live.
  38. Slavery has always been unconstitutional in Mississippi, and Southern Baptists have always been apologizing for supporting it in the first place.
  39. The Metropolitan Opera House in New York has always translated operas on seatback screens.
  40. A bit of the late Gene Roddenberry, creator of Star Trek, has always existed in space.
  41. Good music programmers are rock stars to the women of this generation, just as guitar players were for their mothers.
  42. Gene therapy has always been an available treatment.
  43. They were too young to enjoy the 1994 World Series, but then no one else got to enjoy it either.
  44. The folks have always been able to grab an Aleve when the kids started giving them a migraine.
  45. While the iconic TV series for their older siblings was the sci-fi show Lost, for them it’s Breaking Bad, a gritty crime story motivated by desperate economic circumstances.
  46. Simba has always had trouble waiting to be King.
  47. Before they purchase an assigned textbook, they will investigate whether it is available for rent or purchase as an e-book.
  48. They grew up, somehow, without the benefits of Romper Room.
  49. There has always been a World Trade Organization.
  50. L.L. Bean hunting shoes have always been known as just plain Bean Boots.
  51. They have always been able to see Starz on Direct TV.
  52. Ice skating competitions have always been jumping matches.
  53. There has always been a Santa Clause.
  54. NBC has never shown A Wonderful Life more than twice during the holidays.
  55. Mr. Burns has replaced J.R.Ewing as the most shot-at man on American television.
  56. They have always enjoyed school and summer camp memories with a digital yearbook.
  57. Herr Schindler has always had a List; Mr. Spielberg has always had an Oscar.
  58. Selena's fans have always been in mourning.
  59. They know many established film stars by their voices on computer-animated blockbusters.
  60. History has always had its own channel.
  61. Thousands have always been gathering for “million-man” demonstrations in Washington, D.C.
  62. Television and film dramas have always risked being pulled because the story line was too close to the headlines from which they were ”ripped.”
  63. TheTwilight Zone involves vampires, not Rod Serling.
  64. Robert Osborne has always been introducing Hollywood history on TCM.
  65. Little Caesar has always been proclaiming “Pizza Pizza.”
  66. They have no recollection of when Arianna Huffington was a conservative.
  67. Chronic Fatigue Syndrome has always been officially recognized with clinical guidelines.
  68. They watch television everywhere but on a television.
  69. Pulp Fiction’s meal of a "Royale with Cheese" and an “Amos and Andy milkshake” has little or no resonance with them.
  70. Point-and-shoot cameras are soooooo last millennium.
  71. Despite being preferred urban gathering places, two-thirds of the independent bookstores in the United States have closed for good during their lifetimes.
  72. Astronauts have always spent well over a year in a single space flight.
  73. Lou Gehrig's record for most consecutive baseball games played has never stood in their lifetimes.
  74. Genomes of living things have always been sequenced.
  75. The Sistine Chapel ceiling has always been brighter and cleaner.

Copyright© 2012 Beloit College
Mindset List is a registered trademark

Edited by ZJJ
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Here is the list from last year. This year's will be out soon. 2017 List

When the Class of 2017 arrives on campus this fall, these digital natives will already be well-connected to each other. They are more likely to have borrowed money for college than their Boomer parents were, and while their parents foresee four years of school, the students are pretty sure it will be longer than that. Members of this year’s first year class, most of them born in 1995, will search for the academic majors reported to lead to good-paying jobs, and most of them will take a few courses taught at a distant university by a professor they will never meet.

The use of smart phones in class may indicate they are reading the assignment they should have read last night, or they may be recording every minute of their college experience…or they may be texting the person next to them. If they are admirers of Steve Jobs and Bill Gates, they may wonder whether a college degree is all it’s cracked up to be, even as their dreams are tempered by the reality that tech geniuses come along about as often as Halley’s Comet, which they will not glimpse until they reach what we currently consider “retirement age.”

Though they have never had the chicken pox, they are glad to have access to health insurance for a few more years. They will study hard, learn a good deal more, teach their professors quite a lot, and realize eventually that they will soon be in power. After all, by the time they hit their thirties, four out of ten voters will be of their generation. Whatever their employers may think of them, politicians will be paying close attention.

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 Rodriguez.
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, twenty five thousand, six hundred minutes" in a year.


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  • 5 years later...

Time to update this thread for a dose of "don't I feel old!"

Members of the entering college class of 2019 were mostly born in 1997 and have never licked a postage stamp, have assumed that WiFi is an entitlement, and have no first-hand experience of Princess Diana’s charismatic celebrity.

For this year’s entering class there has always been Google; Email, informal to previous Millennials, has emerged as “the new formal” for them, while texting and other social media serve as the wild and wooly mode of exchange. Teachers have had to work overtime encouraging them to move beyond the Web and consult sources in books and journals. And Poland has always been a member of NATO, suggesting that Mr. Putin’s heartburn about Western expansion is at least as old as the new college kids are.

“The Class of 2019 will enter college with high technology an increasing factor in how and even what they learn,” said Charles Westerberg, Director of the Liberal Arts in Practice Center and Brannon-Ballard Professor of Sociology at Beloit College. “They will encounter difficult discussions about privilege, race, and sexual assault on campus. They may think of the ‘last century’ as the twentieth, not the nineteenth, so they will need ever wider perspectives about the burgeoning mass of information that will be heading their way. And they will need a keen ability to decipher what is the same and what has changed with respect to many of these issues.””

In fairness to the members of the entering class, this year’s Mindset List also includes an addendum of terms that faculty need to understand if they are going to communicate effectively.

The Beloit College Mindset List for the Class of 2019

Students heading into their first year of college this year are mostly 18 and were born in 1997.

 Among those who have never been alive in their lifetimes are Princess Diana, Notorious B.I.G., Jacques Cousteau, and Mother Teresa.

Joining them in the world the year they were born were Dolly the sheep, The McCaughey septuplets, and Michael “Prince” Jackson Jr.

Since they have been on the planet:

  1. Hybrid automobiles have always been mass produced.
  2. Google has always been there, in its founding words, “to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible.”
  3. They have never licked a postage stamp.
  4. Email has become the new “formal” communication, while texts and tweets remain enclaves for the casual.
  5. Four foul-mouthed kids have always been playing in South Park.
  6. Hong Kong has always been under Chinese rule.
  7. They have grown up treating Wi-Fi as an entitlement.
  8. The NCAA has always had a precise means to determine a national champion in college football.
  9. The announcement of someone being the “first woman” to hold a position has only impressed their parents.
  10. Charlton Heston is recognized for waving a rifle over his head as much as for waving his staff over the Red Sea.
  11. Color photos have always adorned the front page of The New York Times.
  12. Ellis Island has always been primarily in New Jersey.
  13. “No means no” has always been morphing, slowly, into “only yes means yes.”
  14. Cell phones have become so ubiquitous in class that teachers don’t know which students are using them to take notes and which ones are planning a party.
  15. The Airport in Washington, D.C., has always been Reagan National Airport.
  16. Their parents have gone from encouraging them to use the Internet to begging them to get off of it.
  17. If you say “around the turn of the century,” they may well ask you, “which one?”
  18. They have avidly joined Harry Potter, Ron, and Hermione as they built their reading skills through all seven volumes.
  19. Attempts at human cloning have never been federally funded but do require FDA approval.
  20. “Crosstown Classic” and the “Battle of the Bay” have always been among the most popular interleague rivalries in Major League Baseball.
  21. Carry Me Back to Old Virginny has never been the official song of the Virginia Commonwealth.
  22. Phish Food has always been available from Ben and Jerry.
  23. Kyoto has always symbolized inactivity about global climate change.
  24. When they were born, cell phone usage was so expensive that families only used their “bag phones,” usually in cars, for emergencies.
  25. The therapeutic use of marijuana has always been legal in a growing number of American states.
  26. The eyes of Texas have never looked upon The Houston Oilers.
  27. Teachers have always had to insist that term papers employ sources in addition to those found online.
  28. In a world of DNA testing, the Tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington has never included a Vietnam War veteran “known only to God.”
  29. Playhouse Disney was a place where they could play growing up.
  30. Surgeons have always used “super glue” in the operating room.
  31. Fifteen nations have always been constructing the International Space Station.
  32. The Lion King has always been on Broadway.
  33. Phoenix Lights is a series of UFO sightings, not a filtered cigarette.
  34. Scotland and Wales have always had their own parliaments and assemblies.
  35. At least Mom and Dad had their new Nintendo 64 to help them get through long nights sitting up with the baby.
  36. First Responders have always been heroes.
  37. Sir Paul and Sir Elton have always been knights of the same musical roundtable.
  38. CNN has always been available en Español.
  39. Heaven’s Gate has always been more a trip to Comet Hale-Bopp and less a film flop.
  40. Splenda has always been a sweet option in the U.S.
  41. The Atlanta Braves have always played at Turner Field.
  42. Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic have always been members of NATO.
  43. Humans have always had implanted radio frequency ID chips—slightly larger than a grain of rice.
  44. TV has always been in such high definition that they could see the pores of actors and the grimaces of quarterbacks.
  45. Jones and Mr. Smith have always been Men in Black, not their next-door neighbors.
  46. Their proud parents recorded their first steps on camcorders, mounted on their shoulders like bazookas.
  47. They had no idea how fortunate they were to enjoy the final four years of Federal budget surpluses.
  48. Amoco gas stations have steadily vanished from the American highway.
  49. Vote-by-mail has always been the official way to vote in Oregon.
  50. …and there has always been a Beloit College Mindset List.

                                             ***

In fairness to the class of 2019 the following are a few of the expressions from their culture that will baffle their parents, older friends, and teachers. (Translations at www.beloit.edu/mindset and www.themindsetlist.com.)

  1. They need to plan ahead so they don’t find themselves “dankrupt.”

 2. A heavy dose of “Natty Light” has always caught up with them in the morning.

3. As long as they can find a ballpoint pen they can use their “redneck teleprompter.” 

  1. “Smartphone shuffles” have always slowed down traffic between classes. 
  1. “Vatican Roulette” has always been risky but acceptable. 
  1. A significant other who is a bit “too Yoko Ono” has always created tension.  
  1. “Quiche” has everything to do with hot and nothing to do with food.
  1. “Trolling” innocents on social media has always been uncharitable. 
  1. They’ll know better than to text their professors “TL DR” about assignments

 Slurring “textroverts” have always been a fact of social life.” 

 And Last, Your Personal Explainer

 Baffled by the Millennial jargon you’ve just read? Feeling old? Here’s a glossary that will end your bewilderment and make you feel hip!

  1. They need to plan ahead so they don’t find themselves “dankrupt.”

One of a variety of painful declarations that we are out of weed

 2. A heavy dose of “Natty Light” has always caught up with them in the morning.

It may taste great and be less filling, but there are limits.

 3. As long as they can find a ballpoint pen they can use their “redneck teleprompter.” 

The bigger the back of your hand, the more notes you can include, but don’t get caught looking.

 4. “Smartphone shuffles” have always slowed down traffic between classes. 

One can avoid all eye contact as one moves through the madding texting crowd.

  1. “Vatican Roulette” has always been risky but acceptable. 

If you’ve got rhythm and like your planning natural, then Vatican Roulette is the game for you.

  1. A significant other who is a bit “too Yoko Ono” has always created tension.  

A partner too hard to handle…hard for your friends to compete with perfection

  1. “Quiche” has everything to do with hot and nothing to do with food.

Turn down the heat. Some people are just so hot they enhance the appetite.

  1. “Trolling” innocents on social media has always been uncharitable. 

Cynical and bullying attacks on happy campers, preserved on the internet, may come back to haunt you

  1. They’ll know better than to text their professors “TL DR” about assignments

…and just hope their professor doesn’t scribble back to them, about their own papers: “TOO LONG: DIDN”T READ.”

 10. Slurring “textroverts” have always been a fact of social life.

If you’re too drunk to say it face to face, you probably should wait until morning before you start texting. 

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