The Class of 2014 Doesn’t Use Cursive — Or E-mail
By Megan Friedman | @megancarol | August 17, 2010
Randy Faris/Corbis
The incoming class of college freshmen in 2014 considers Nirvana "oldies" and Clint Eastwood primarily as a director. They know Fergie as a member of the Black-Eyed Peas, not as the Duchess of York. Get ready to feel old. Beloit College has released its annual Mindset List, which analyzes the cultural perspective of each incoming college class to provide professors with a frame of reference for teaching. The list began in 1998 as a way to help professors avoid outdated references, and it continues today as a tool to track social history. (See pictures of the evolution of the college dorm.)
According to the Mindset List, the Class of 2014 views Starbucks, DNA mapping, and collaboration with Russians in space as constants that have always existed. They likely have never used a corded phone. Below are a few more insights, with the full list available on Beloit’s website (via AP):
- A quarter of the class has at least one immigrant parent, and the immigration debate is not a high priority... unless it involves "real" aliens from another planet.
- The first computer they probably touched was an Apple II; it is now in a museum.
- Czechoslovakia has never existed.
- Rock bands have always played at presidential inaugural parties.
- The nation has never approved of the job Congress is doing.
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