Tuesday, August 21, 2012

What is True For This Year's College Freshmen - 2012

Photo Credit: CollegeDegrees360
Each year around this time, Beloit College releases what they call the Mindset List -- a list of important facts and events which influence the worldview and perspective that this year's college freshmen class brings with them.

This year's list, which is made up for the graduating class of 2016, represents those students who were born in 1994. You can read the complete list here but I've included some entries below that I found particularly interesting:
- They have always lived in cyberspace, addicted to a new generation of “electronic narcotics.” 
- 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. 
- Michael Jackson’s family, not the Kennedys, constitutes “American Royalty.” 
- If they miss The Daily Show, they can always get their news on YouTube. 
- Robert De Niro is thought of as Greg Focker's long-suffering father-in-law, not as Vito Corleone or Jimmy Conway. 
- Bill Clinton is a senior statesman of whose presidency they have little knowledge. 
- 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. 
- They can’t picture people actually carrying luggage through airports rather than rolling it. 
- Having grown up with MP3s and iPods, they never listen to music on the car radio and really have no use for radio at all. 
- Exposed bra straps have always been a fashion statement, not a wardrobe malfunction to be corrected quietly by well-meaning friends. 
- The Real World has always stopped being polite and started getting real on MTV. 
- White House security has never felt it necessary to wear rubber gloves when gay groups have visited. 
- They have lived in an era of instant stardom and self-proclaimed celebrities, famous for being famous. 
- Outdated icons with images of floppy discs for “save,” a telephone for “phone,” and a snail mail envelope for “mail” have oddly decorated their tablets and smart phone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. 
- Star Wars has always been just a film, not a defense strategy. 
- They have had to incessantly remind their parents not to refer to their CDs and DVDs as “tapes.” 
- Slavery has always been unconstitutional in Mississippi, and Southern Baptists have always been apologizing for supporting it in the first place. 
- Before they purchase an assigned textbook, they will investigate whether it is available for rent or purchase as an e-book. 
- NBC has never shown A Wonderful Life more than twice during the holidays. 
- They know many established film stars by their voices on computer-animated blockbusters.
- They watch television everywhere but on a television.
- Despite being preferred urban gathering places, two-thirds of the independent bookstores in the United States have closed for good during their lifetimes. 

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