WHEN BELOIT COLLEGE’S (WI) FORMER PUBLIC AFFAIRS DIRECTOR Ron Nief and Keefer Professor of the Humanities Tom McBride first created a frame of reference for the faculty to better understand the incoming freshman class, they had no idea it would still be popular nearly two decades later. Referred to as “The Mindset List,” the annual collection lists cultural criteria to help remind faculty how that year’s freshmen see the world. The concept became so popular that the two wrote, “The Mindset Lists of American History: From Typewriters to Text Messages, What Ten Generations of Americans Think is Normal.”
The following includes some of our favorites from this year’s Mindset List for the college freshmen who will graduate in 2018.
1. Celebrity “selfies” are far cooler than autographs.
2. The rate of diagnosed diabetes has always been shooting up during their lifetime.
3. One route to pregnancy has always been through frozen eggs.
4. They gather with friends on Skype, not in their local park.
5. Female referees have always officiated NBA games.
6. There has always been “TV” designed to be watched exclusively on the Web.
7. Hong Kong has always been part of China.
8. FOX News and MSNBC have always been duking it out for the hearts and minds of American viewers.
9. Ads for prescription drugs, noting their disturbing side effects, have always flooded the airwaves.
10. “Press pound” on the phone is now translated as “hit hashtag.”
11. Courts have always been overturning bans on same-sex marriages.
12. “The Daily Show” with Jon Stewart has always been the only news program that really “gets it right.”
13. Nicotine has always been recognized as an addictive drug requiring FDA oversight.
14. Women have always attended the Virginia Military Institute and The Citadel.
15. Yet another blessing of digital technology: They have never had to hide their dirty magazines under the bed.
16. Since Toys“R”Us® created a toy registry for kids, visits to Santa are just a formality.
17. When they see wire-rimmed glasses, they think Harry Potter, not John Lennon.
18. While the number of Americans living with HIV has always been going up, American deaths from AIDS have always been going down.
19. They have probably never used Netscape as their Web browser.
20. Bill Gates has always been the richest man in the United States.
