The Mindset of the College Freshman (Class of 2015): Beloit College Releases Annual List

From the Intro of The Mindset List 2015:

This year’s entering college class of 2015 was born just as the Internet took everyone onto the information highway and as Amazon began its relentless flow of books and everything else into their lives.  Members of this year’s freshman class, most of them born in 1993, are the first generation to grow up taking the word “online” for granted and for whom crossing the digital divide has redefined research, original sources and access to information, changing the central experiences and methods in their lives. They have come of age as women assumed command of U.S. Navy ships, altar girls served routinely at Catholic Mass, and when everything from parents analyzing childhood maladies to their breaking up with boyfriends and girlfriends, sometimes quite publicly, have been accomplished on the Internet.

Each August since 1998, Beloit College has released the Beloit College Mindset List, providing a look at the cultural touchstones that shape the lives of students entering college this fall. The creation of Beloit’s former Public Affairs Director Ron Nief and Keefer Professor of the Humanities Tom McBride, it was originally created as a reminder to faculty to be aware of dated references, and quickly became a catalog of the rapidly changing worldview of each new generation. Mindset List websites at Beloit College and at mindsetmoment.com, the media site webcast and their Facebook page receive more than a million hits annually.

Here are 21 Selections From The Mindset List for the Class of 2015
The full list contains 75 items.

Andre the Giant, River Phoenix, Frank Zappa, Arthur Ashe and the Commodore 64 have always been dead.

1. There has always been an Internet ramp onto the information highway.
2. Ferris Bueller and Sloane Peterson could be their parents.
3. States and Velcro parents have always been requiring that they wear their bike helmets.
4. More Americans have always traveled to Latin America than to Europe
5. O.J. Simpson has always been looking for the killers of Nicole Simpson and Ronald Goldman.
6. Women have never been too old to have children.
7. Life has always been like a box of chocolates.
8. Video games have always had ratings.
9. The Rocky Horror Picture Show has always been available on TV.
10. Dial-up is soooooooooo last century!
11. Women have always been kissing women on television.
12. Music has always been available via free downloads.
13. Public schools have always made space available for advertising.
14. New kids have always been known as NKOTB.
15. They’ve often broken up with their significant others via texting, Facebook, or MySpace
16. Frasier, Sam, Woody and Rebecca have never Cheerfully frequented a bar in Boston during primetime.
17. Major League Baseball has never had fewer than three divisions and never lacked a wild card entry in the playoffs.
18. They won’t go near a retailer that lacks a website.
19. They’ve always had the privilege of talking with a chatterbot.
20. Refugees and prisoners have always been housed by the U.S. government at Guantanamo.

Additional Info, Access to the Complete List, Archived Lists (Classes of 1998-2014), and Video

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