This Year’s College Freshmen Have Never Licked A Stamp

I just had a birthday and it wasn’t one of the milestones but it did leave me feeling a little older. Now I read this and it gets worse!NBC News reports on Beloit College’s annual project called the "Mindset List".  The list looks as the culture shaping the lives of incoming college freshmen. This year the majority college freshman were born in 1997, the same year "Titanic" was released and Princess Diana was killed in a car crash in Paris.

This year's "Mindset List" reveals that for those born in 1997 "South Park" has always been on the air, licking postage stamps has never been necessary, the International Space Station has always been under construction, Hong Kong has always been under Chinese rule, and that Splenda has always been a sweetener option in the U.S.

Other things of note: this year's college freshman feel entitled to Wi-Fi, and feel that email is the "new formal communication." Tom McBride, one of the list's creators says the list can ultimately help college faculty relate to their students, saying, "The message for faculty is: Don't assume your old references will always continue to make sense." (NBC News)