Incoming freshmen have never been offline

According to the annual Beloit College Mindset List, the class of 2015 has never known life without the Internet.

Women serving on the Supreme Court, as commanders of U.S. Navy ships, or as alter girls at Catholic Mass are nothing new to students born in 1993. The Beloit list reminds professors, instructors and mentors teaching members of this class that the world of these young people differs from the world they knew.

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. It was originally created as a reminder to Beloit faculty to be aware of dated references they might use without considering what may or may not be familiar to students. The list quickly became a catalog of the rapidly changing worldview of each new generation.

Many concepts and cultural phenomena have been constants to the incoming freshman class. For them, some things and ideas were always here, and many significant events were before their time. For example:

• Amazon is a monster marketplace on the Internet, rather than just a river in South America.
• Their parents have always been able to create a will and other legal documents online.
• Charter schools have always been an alternative.
• Public schools have always made space available for advertising.
• Life has always been like a box of chocolates.
• Mohammed and Jesus have always been names of classmates.
• Nurses have always been in short supply.
• Music has always been available via free downloads.
• The only significant labor disputes in their lifetimes have been in major league sports.
• There has never been an official Communist Party in Russia.
• Refugees and prisoners have always been housed by the U.S. government at Guantanamo.
• “PC” has come to mean Personal Computer, not Political Correctness.
• They have never known a world without Barney the Purple Dinosaur.

Mindset List websites at Beloit College and at www.mindsetmoment.com , the media site webcast and their Facebook page receive more than a million hits annually. Find the complete list at http://www.beloit.edu/mindset/2015/