A sign of the times: Beethoven is a dog and Fergie was never a princess

by Steve Ragan - Aug 18 2010, 12:55

Every August, since 1998, Beloit College in Beloit, Wis., has released the Beloit Mindset List. The Mindset List offers a look at the cultural touchstones that have shaped the lives of students entering college and adulthood. Here is an interesting look at the kids hitting campus this fall.

The class of 2014 was, for the most part, born in 1992. Some of the Mindset List for this group is to be expected, other aspects of the list will make more than a few of us feel really, really old. For a bit of amusement, here are some highlights from a few of the more recent lists. You can view them all here. Now get off my lawn!

Class of 2014 (DOB circa 1992)

Al Gore has always been animated.

Email is just too slow, and the Class of 2014 will seldom if ever use snail mail.

A quarter of the class has at least one immigrant parent, and the immigration debate is not a big priority…unless it involves “real” aliens from another planet

John McEnroe has never played professional tennis.

Clint Eastwood is better known as a sensitive director than as Dirty Harry.

Doctor Kevorkian has never been licensed to practice medicine.

Fergie is a pop singer, not a princess.

Computers have never lacked a CD-ROM disk drive.

“Viewer Discretion” has always been an available warning on TV shows.
(It’s eleven-o-clock; do you know where your children are?)

The first computer they probably touched was an Apple II; it is now in a museum.

Beethoven has always been a dog.

Having hundreds of cable channels but nothing to watch has always been routine.

They first met Michelangelo when he was just a computer virus.

The nation has never approved of the job Congress is doing.

Class of 2013 (DOB circa 1991)

The Green Giant has always been Shrek, not the big guy picking vegetables.

They have been preparing for the arrival of HDTV all their lives.

The KGB has never officially existed.

They have never understood the meaning of R.S.V.P.

Condoms have always been advertised on television.

There has always been a Cartoon Network.

CDs have never been sold in cardboard packaging.

Class of 2012 (DOB circa 1990)

Harry Potter could be a classmate, playing on their Quidditch team.

They have always been looking for Carmen Sandiego.

IBM has never made typewriters.

They have never been able to color a tree using a raw umber Crayola.

The Tonight Show has always been hosted by Jay Leno and started at 11:35 EST.

Lenin’s name has never been on a major city in Russia.

They have never known life without Seinfeld references from a show about “nothing.”

Class of 2011 (DOB circa 1989)

What Berlin wall?

Michael Moore has always been angry and funny.

Nelson Mandela has always been free and a force in South Africa.

Russia has always had a multi-party political system.

Tiananmen Square is a 2008 Olympics venue, not the scene of a massacre.

Being a latchkey kid has never been a big deal.

They learned about JFK from Oliver Stone and Malcolm X from Spike Lee.

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