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Each August since 1998, as faculty prepare for the academic year, Beloit College in Wisconsin has released the Beloit College Mindset List. A creation of Beloit’s Keefer Professor of the Humanities Tom McBride and Public Affairs Director Ron Nief, it looks at the cultural touchstones that have shaped the lives of today’s first-year students.

Mindset List 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 They could always get rid of their outdated toys on eBay.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.”
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