mystmarimatt

i was dinking around online and i found this article on netscape.net, and thought it might be fun to read, because it pertains to me.


"Born Before 1985? Then You Are...
...OLD! And here's proof.

Every year Beloit College in Beloit, Wisconsin publishes what it calls "The Mindset List"--fun facts and figures about the incoming crop of freshmen so professors will be able to relate to their new students.

Beloit says the list is a reminder that the world view of today's new college students is significantly different from the intellectual framework of those students who entered only a few years earlier. Put another way, it's a reminder that you are getting on in years. One of the list's creators is Beloit professor Tom McBride, who quips, "It is an alert for those of us who may be suffering from hardening of the references." And there's no medicine for this!

So to better understand how the class of 2007 thinks, most of whom were born in 1985, read this and feel your age:

The people who are starting college this fall across the nation were born in 1985.

They have no meaningful recollection of the Reagan era and probably did not know he had ever been shot.

They were prepubescent when the Persian Gulf War was waged.

There has been only one pope in their lifetime.

They were 10 when the Soviet Union broke apart and do not remember the Cold War.

They are too young to remember the space shuttle blowing up on takeoff.

Tiananmen Square means nothing to them.

Bottle caps have always been screw off and plastic.

Atari predates them, as do vinyl albums.

The statement "You sound like a broken record" means nothing to them. (They have never owned a record player.)

They have likely never played Pac Man and have never heard of Pong.

They may have never heard of an 8-track tape. The compact disc was introduced when they were 1 year old.

They have always had an answering machine.

Most have never seen a TV set with only 13 channels, nor have they seen a black and white TV.

They have always had cable.

There have always been VCRs, but they have no idea what Beta was.

They cannot fathom not having a remote control.

They don't know what a cloth baby diaper is or know about the "Help me, I've fallen and I can't get up!" commercial.

They were born the year that Walkman was introduced by Sony.

Roller skating has always meant inline for them.

Michael Jackson has always been white.

Jay Leno has always been on "The Tonight Show."

They have no idea when or why Jordache jeans were cool.

Popcorn has always been cooked in the microwave.

They have never seen Larry Bird play.

They never took a swim and thought about "Jaws."

The Vietnam War is as ancient history to them as World War I, World War II, and the Civil War.

They have no idea that Americans were ever held hostage in Iran.

They can't imagine what hard contact lenses are.

They don't know who Mork was or where he was from. (The correct answer, by the way, is Ork.)

They never heard: "Where's the beef?", "I'd walk a mile for a Camel," or "De plane, de plane!"

They do not care who shot J.R. and have no idea who J.R. was.

Kansas, Chicago, Boston, America, and Alabama are places, not bands.

There has always been MTV.

They don't have a clue how to use a typewriter."

Now, mostly, i thought the article was funny, and a lot of it had truth, but it seems to me it makes some really stupid assumptions.

I, for one, have played both Pacman, and Pong, they aren't exactly mythical artifacts from a dead civilization, some of my friends still own Ataris.

My family does own a record player, records and i'm fully aware of its function and how to operate it, lots of families keep them, because their parents are afraid of change, and refuse switch to anything new. like tape decks or 8 track (hehe, sorry older folks, i had to get it in)

i've definently seen a black and white tv, we've got one downstairs.

roller skating IS still roller skating at the rinks.

I have too gone swimming and thought about jaws.

Hard contacts are still in use, i wear them.

Wait, wait, Mork's that guy on Nick at Nite nd the old tv show station, played by Robin Williams, right? (disproved by the very invention of it's existence, hehe)

Typewriters are just dumb, if you screw up once, it's kaput.

anyway, my point was not that i'm bitter at this, i just wanted to poke fun at their perception of us, because it seems to treat us with these kid gloves, of sorts, and i thought it was funny. Your thoughts?

__________________
Words of Wisdom:

If you could really get to know someone and know that they weren't lying to you, then you would know the world was real. Because you could agree on things, you could compare notes. That must be why people get married or make Art. So they'll be able to really know something and not go insane.

JBX

<---Ancient... but read my signature.

__________________
"Youth and Strength is no match for Age and Treachery"

rogue49

Boy, do you know how to make a man feel old, and 35 is not old at all.

I don't think so much they are talking about individuals and their experiences, but the generation in general.

The profs might make references or jokes in their interactions with the students,
this makes for a bit less awkwardness if they know not to make them in the first place.

It helps with connecting with them, and if you "connect",
then you can teach easier.

TIO

Actually, they were introduced two years before they were born.

This made me smile...I'm only 2 and a half years older than those guys, but I'm familiar with all the 'ancient technology' stuff...but talking to the freshers at college, none of them do.

__________________
Strewth

BBtB

And I found that list amusing but nothing else. A few of those were right but like mystmarimatt said most of those are major assumptions with no basis in reality. Although one that is very true is the one about Vietnam and most politics of the last 40 years. I dunno if any of you have read a recent history book but I do believe mine had about 3 pages for everything from the cold war, to the korean war, vietnam and the moon landing.

__________________
Meridae'n once played "death" at a game of chess that lasted for over two years. He finally beat death in a best 34 out of 67 match. At that time he could ask for any one thing and he could wish for the hope of all mankind... he looked death right in the eye and said ...

"I would like about three fiddy"

spectre

Same here, only I'm four years older.

__________________
"Fuck these chains
No goddamn slave
I will be different" ~ Machine Head

punx1325

I think a lot of these things are true for me and I was born in 1984.

__________________
If something seems too good to be true, then it probably is....

Praxela

I am a member of the class of 2007 and I know about all of the things on that list have used most of them. I only speak for myself here because I am one of the select few of my generation who isn't a complete moron. So maybe for the average ditzy blonde the list does apply.

__________________
"In the end I was just a god damned trendy ass poser." SLC Punk

Averett

I'm 25 and that made me feel old!

__________________
Absence is to love what wind is to fire. It extinguishes the small, it enkindles the great.

The_Dude

wow, i'm quite contrary to many of the things it says

__________________
"Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity." - Darrel K Royal

ktthequeen

ditto and i'm only 2 years older than that

i remember playing atari so fucking much until it suddenly broke. lucky for us, nintendo was just coming out!

anti fishstick

hahahah same here. way to make someone just 2 years older feel old. but, pacman and pong 0wnz!

__________________
And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.
~Anais Nin

johnnymysto

Waaaaaaahh!!!!! I'm old.

Man, they don't remember when MTV actually played videos! Poor kids....

__________________
"I'm disinclined to acquiesce to your request." - Capt. Barbossa

Infinite Hybrid

I was born in 1984 and I know a lot of that stuff. Go me.

Funny though is that I could recall some cartoons that some people would have no idea about.

__________________
paramedics fell into the wound
like a rehired scab at a barehanded plant
an anesthetic penance beneath
the hail of contraband

viveleroi0

I hate the tennyboppers... or as my wife calls them "bippy-twats"

__________________
"It's not that I don't understand, it's that I don't care"
- Homer Simpson

bermuDa

born in '84 and thankfully I don't fall into any of that criteria... damn whippersnappers!

__________________
I am the very model of a moderator gentleman.

mystmarimatt

Bippy-Twats? lol, i love that so much

__________________
Words of Wisdom:

If you could really get to know someone and know that they weren't lying to you, then you would know the world was real. Because you could agree on things, you could compare notes. That must be why people get married or make Art. So they'll be able to really know something and not go insane.