MILWAUKEE — Mention Amazon to the incoming class of college freshmen and they are more likely to think of shopping than the South American river. PC doesn’t stand for political correctness, and breaking up on Facebook is more common than a personal encounter.
Those are among the 75 references on this year’s Beloit College Mindset List, a compilation reminding teachers that college freshmen born mostly in 1993 see the world in a much different way: They fancied pogs and Tickle Me Elmo toys as children and watched televisions that never had dials.
Once upon a time, relatives of the current generation swore never to trust anyone over the age of 30. This group could argue: Never trust anyone older than the Net.
The college’s compilation, released today, is assembled each year by two officials at the private school in southeastern Wisconsin. It also has evolved into a national phenomenon, a cultural touchstone that entertains even as it makes people wonder where the years have gone.
Remember when the initials LBJ referred to President Lyndon B. Johnson? Today, according to the list, they make teenagers think of NBA star LeBron James. In their lifetimes, Major League Baseball has always had three divisions plus wild-card playoff teams, and every state has always observed Martin Luther King Jr. Day. The “yadda, yadda, yadda” generation that has been quoting Seinfeld since they were old enough to talk also has always seen women serve as U.S. Supreme Court justices and command U.S. Navy ships.
Then there’s O.J. Simpson. These students were still in diapers when the former NFL star began searching for the killers of Nicole Simpson and Ronald Goldman.
“Hmm, I know there was some scandal about him,” said Alex Keesey, 18, an incoming freshman from Beloit. “I think it was robbery or murder, maybe both.”
Still not feeling old? Consider this: Andre the Giant, River Phoenix and Frank Zappa all died before these students were born. They don’t know what a Commodore 64 was, and they don’t understand why Boston barflies would ever shout, “Norm!” Oh, and Ferris Bueller could be their father.
But the list isn’t intended to serve as a cultural tombstone, its authors say, contending that the compilation also serves a practical purpose.
List authors Tom McBride and Ron Nief say the main lesson professors should take from this year’s list is that their incoming students have never lived in a world without the Internet. From the moment these kids were able to reach a tabletop, their fingertips probably were brushing against computers plugged into the World Wide Web.
Although that was largely true for the last few classes as well, the authors say teachers need to be extra-vigilant about where this year’s students are going for information.
The Internet is great for finding facts, McBride says, but there is a big difference between facts and the knowledge that comes from understanding context behind the facts. He advises professors to teach how to supplement Internet searches with library research in scholarly journals, and to remind freshmen to dig beyond the first page or two of Google search results.
Sara Ballesteros, an 18-year-old freshman from South Beloit, said she is confident she knows how to do legitimate Internet research, by relying more on websites that end in “” or “” than in “” or “.”
She also opined that adults worry too much about kids’ Internet habits.
“For older people who think we use the Internet way too much for bad things, it really depends on the person, on their beliefs and ideals,” she said. “Technology can be used in good ways. But adults don’t always understand that.”
The list
Some of the 75 items from Beloit College’s Mindset List for the Class of 2015:
4. The only significant labor disputes in their lifetimes have been in major league sports.
16. Women have never been too old to have children.
17. Japan has always been importing rice.
23. There has never been an official Communist Party in Russia.
33. Faux Christmas trees have always outsold real ones.
37. Music has always been available via free downloads.
40. Sears has never sold anything out of a Big Book that could also serve as a doorstop.
44. They are the first generation to grow up hearing about the dangerous overuse of antibiotics.
49. Public schools have always made space available for advertising.
62. Nurses have always been in short supply.
71. Refugees and prisoners have always been housed by the U.S. government at Guantanamo Bay.
Source: 2011 Beloit College Mindset List
