Plan B Forum

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. * * *

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. * * *

As for the class of 2015, without any memory whatever of George Herbert Walker Bush as president, they came into existence as Bill Clinton came into the presidency.

The Mindset List for the Class of 2015

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. The only significant labor disputes in their lifetimes have been in major league sports.
5. There have nearly always been at least two women on the Supreme Court, and women have always commanded U.S. Navy ships.
6. They “swipe” cards, not merchandise.
7. As they’ve grown up on websites and cell phones, adult experts have constantly fretted about their alleged deficits of empathy and concentration.
8. Their school’s “blackboards” have always been getting smarter.
9. “Don’t touch that dial!”….what dial?

12. Amazon has never been just a river in South America.

16. Women have never been too old to have children.
17. Japan has always been importing rice.

23. The Communist Party has never been the official political party in Russia.
24. “Yadda, yadda, yadda” has always come in handy to make long stories short.
25. Video games have always had ratings.

29. Arnold Palmer has always been a drink.

32. Their older siblings have told them about the days when Britney Spears, Justin Timberlake and Christina Aguilera were Mouseketeers.

37. Music has always been available via free downloads.

42. Electric cars have always been humming in relative silence on the road.

46. Russian courts have always had juries.
47. No state has ever failed to observe Martin Luther King Day.

49. Public schools have always made space available for advertising.

56. They’ve always wanted to be like Shaq or Kobe: Michael Who?
57. They’ve often broken up with their significant others via texting, Facebook, or MySpace.

63. They won’t go near a retailer that lacks a website.

67. Folks in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City have always been able to energize with Pepsi Cola.

75. The New York Times and the Boston Globe have never been rival newspapers.

Ferris Bueller and Sloane Peterson could be their parents.

The Rocky Horror Picture Show has always been available on TV.

68. Andy Warhol is a museum in Pittsburgh.

Gob wrote:

The Rocky Horror Picture Show has always been available on TV.

And presumably the characters in it seem neither shocking, outrageous, or particularly sexy.

Sue U wrote:Did you know those are her lips in the opening credits of the movie? After all these years, I just found that out.

Gob wrote: I've met Sean, you don't have to tell me that!