Beloit College Mindset List for 2020

[ClarkKent_DC]

Once again, friends, it's time for the latest guidance from Beloit College. (See last year's list here.)

The drill is the same as it is each year:

If you are unfamiliar, each August, starting in 1998, Beloit College in Beloit, WI presents The Mindset List, "providing a look at the cultural touchstones that shape the lives of students entering college this fall." It initially was meant to be a guide to the faculty to help them understand the incoming freshman class, by pointing out the things that "everybody" knows are different for the teachers as they are for those students, because times have changed. Accordingly, it's a warning to those teachers to "watch their references."

Without further ado, here is the Beloit College Mindset List for 2020. And check out the nifty slideshow!

THE BELOIT COLLEGE MINDSET LIST FOR THE CLASS OF 2020

Students heading into their first year of college this year are mostly 18 and were born in 1998.

Among those who have never been alive in their lifetime are Frank Sinatra, Phil Hartman, Matthew Shepard, Sonny Bono, and Flo-Jo.

Since they arrived on this planet….

1. There has always been a digital swap meet called eBay.
2. Grandpa has always been able to reach for the Celebrex.
3. They never heard Harry Caray try to sing during the seventh inning at Wrigley Field.
4. There have always been Cadillac Escalades, but they just don't seem to be all that into cars. 
5. West Nile has always been a virus found in the U.S.
6. Vladimir Putin has always been calling the shots at the Kremlin.
7. The Sandy Hook tragedy is their Columbine.
8. Cloning has always been a mundane laboratory procedure.
9. Elian Gonzalez, who would like to visit the U.S. again someday, has always been back in Cuba.
10. The United States has always been at war.
11. Euros have always been the coin of the realm...well, at least part of the realm.
12. Serena Williams has always been winning Grand Slam singles titles.
13. SpongeBob SquarePants has always lived at Bikini Bottom.
14. The Ali/Frazier boxing match for their generation was between the daughters of Muhammad and Joe.
15. They have never had to watch or listen to programs at a scheduled time. 
16. James P. Hoffa has always been president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters.
17. Surprise: There has always been sex in the city.
18. John Hinckley has always been able to get out of the hospital to go for a walk.
19. Each year they've been alive the U.S. population has grown by more than one million Latinos. 
20. TV ads for casinos have always been permitted to mention that there is actually gambling going on in there. 
21. Vaccines have always been erroneously linked to autism.
22. Laws against on-the-job harassment have always applied to parties of the same sex. 
23. Even as the national mood gets glummer, there has always been an annual prize for the most humorous American.
24. Catholics and Lutherans have always been in agreement on how to get to heaven.
25. To greet them with some cheery news, when they were born, India and Pakistan became nuclear powers.
26. If you want to reach them, you’d better send a text—emails are oft ignored.
27. They disagree with their parents as to which was the “first” Star Wars episode.
28. “Nanny cams” have always been available to check up on the babysitter.
29. NFL coaches have always had the opportunity to throw a red flag and question the ref.
30. Bada Bing – Tony and Carmela Soprano and the gang have always been part of American culture.
31. They have no memory of Bob Dole promoting Viagra.
32. Books have always been read to you on audible.com.
33. Citizens have always been able to register to vote when they get their driver’s license.
34. Bluetooth has always been keeping us wireless and synchronized.
35. X-rays have always been digital allowing them to be read immediately.
36. Exxon and Mobil have been one company—and it doesn’t own any gas stations.
37. They have always eaten irradiated food.
38. A Bush and a Clinton have always been campaigning for something big.
39. Physicians have always had unions.
40. Some have always questioned the sexual orientation of certain Teletubbies.
41. Snowboarding has always been an Olympic sport.
42. Students have always questioned where and by whom their sweatshirts are made.
43. While chads were hanging in Florida, they were potty training in all 50 states. 
44. Presidents have always been denied line item veto power.
45. Nigeria has always been a constitutional republic with a civilian government.
46. The once-feared Thalidomide has always been recognized as a cancer fighting drug. 
47. DreamWorks has always been making animated creatures heroic and loveable.
48. Deceased men have always been able to procreate.
49. John Elway and Wayne Gretzky have always been retired.
50. They have never seen billboard ads for cigarettes.
51. The New York Stock Exchange has never reported its ups and downs in fractions.
52. Airline tickets have always been purchased online.
53. There have always been iMacs on desks.
54. Instant, tray-less ice cubes have never been a novelty.
55. Robots have always been surgical partners in the O.R.
56. Peregrine falcons have never been on the endangered species list.
57. Outstanding women basketball players have always had their own Hall of Fame in Knoxville, Tenn.
58. Newt who?
59. War films have always shown horrific battle scenes inspired by Saving Private Ryan.
60. Michael J. Fox has always spoken publicly about having Parkinson's disease.

Copyright© 2016 Beloit College

[Emerkeith Davyjack]

...Well ~ allllllRIGHTY then !!!!!!!!!!! Now , for what I said in the paragraph you excerpted other than the last sentence ?

  You know ? The main point ?

(I should've said " pre-dating that " in one , I hope fairly obvious , point above .)

ClarkKent_DC said:

Emerkeith Davyjack said:

  To return to something I said last year , this list appears to fall into the assumption that EVERY 17/18-yr. old Beloit frosh ALWAYS had the latest tech in their home situations at all times - Weren't there ever any who , oh , just for something mild , were less well-off for at least a while when their folks went bankrupt or got a divorce or just got deposited  with Gramps or Auntie for a while who either didn't have computers or just had dial-up ? NO Beloit frosh ever was financially below the have-the-latest-cool-stuff level at any time in their pre-college childhoods ? That is why I made that " upper-class bratitorium " joke last year that got misunderstood .

It got misunderstood because it was pointless and not funny. And it hasn't gotten any funnier in the days since.

[Captain Comics]

I just assume when I make a joke that no one will get it. When someone laughs, I'm pleasantly surprised.

[Emerkeith Davyjack]

...Well , my grousing about this (IMHO) flaw in the Mindset List's apparent way of looking t things is based on Beliot's concet/putting together of the list - And , maybe , what the " MSM " , you should pardon the expression , at least to mine own brain seems to make of it , not Clark's posting of the story .

  And , okay , EXPLAINING it !!!..I was joking that , perhaps , Beloit wsas some sort of " upper-crust reform school " hah hah , of a college that tended to get well-off students who'd gotten into legal or other trouble or weren't too well-testing , anyway , and soaked their loving Daddio and Mum for keeping Junior out of trouble and on the way to a degree of sorts...and that was why it did not occur to them that any (Paying full-freight , anyhow ~ maybe they have a few scholarship attendees ?) Good Ol' Beloit frosh could ever have been in any home situation where the latest tech was not just-like-water !!!!! See ?

[Jeff of Earth-J]

This weekend I read a story, set in 1948, which mentioned "those newfangled cardboard milk cartons" and I immediately thought: "Milk has always been available in cardboard cartons." (In point of fact, I do remember milk being delivered to our house in glass bottles from the local dairy.) I'd like to see a "mindset list" for the year of my birth: "President Kennedy has always been dead," perhaps.

[Richard Willis]

I didn't realize that in 1948 they were already beginning to use cardboard milk cartons. When I was little, probably around 1955-56, I remember my Dad driving us to the local dairy to buy milk in bottles, It was only a mile or so away and was probably cheaper than having it delivered. The cows were right there, too.That whole area is totally suburban now.

Just recently one of the news shows had a story about the little cartons they give you at Chinese restaurants for leftovers or take-out food. When I was little and hadn't given up on goldfish I would bring home a new goldfish in an identical carton. My family didn't eat Chinese food when I was little so I never thought of these as food containers. Today they will sell you a goldfish in a plastic bag. In the old days plastic was not yet pervasive. I think it got cheaper to produce.

[ClarkKent_DC]

One (of the) thing(s) that yanked me out of the story in Frank Miller's All-Star Batman & Robin was the panel where the missing Dick Grayson's picture is on a milk carton, something they stopped doing more than 15 years ago.

(Also, Dick Grayson's picture was on that milk carton the same day he went missing! One of many, many reasons that was such a lousy story!)

[Luke Blanchard]

Did the milk cartons ever leave to children being located?

[Dave Palmer]

Just the type of question I can't stop myself from investigating.

I found a number of stories on the internet.  Here are a few of them:

http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2015/11/missing-children-mi...

http://99percentinvisible.org/episode/milk-carton-kids/

http://newsfeed.time.com/2012/04/20/etan-patz-a-brief-history-of-th...

The second link tells about a little girl who found a milk carton with her picture on it, and was ultimately recovered.  The third links notes that "The milk campaigns helped the center recover children at a rate of 62 percent during its inaugural year in 1984."  That seems awfully high.

[Richard Willis]

One of my favorite Astro City covers.

[JohnD]

You didn't have a milkman? Once a week our neighbor, Serio, would make his rounds dropping off the milk at our doorstep. Yep, we had a milk box too (it was essentially a cooler that the local dairy would provide in order to keep the milk cool if you happened not to be home when the milkman stopped by). The delivery truck wasn't air cooled. The back portion was simply packed with ice. The milk was kept in crates that were jammed into the ice, so, when it came time to deliver it, you would have to dig a crate out of the ice. Serio was, pardon the pun, cool. On summer days, he would let my buddies and I "swim" in the ice while he made his rounds.

Richard Willis said:

I didn't realize that in 1948 they were already beginning to use cardboard milk cartons. When I was little, probably around 1955-56, I remember my Dad driving us to the local dairy to buy milk in bottles, It was only a mile or so away and was probably cheaper than having it delivered. The cows were right there, too.That whole area is totally suburban now.

Just recently one of the news shows had a story about the little cartons they give you at Chinese restaurants for leftovers or take-out food. When I was little and hadn't given up on goldfish I would bring home a new goldfish in an identical carton. My family didn't eat Chinese food when I was little so I never thought of these as food containers. Today they will sell you a goldfish in a plastic bag. In the old days plastic was not yet pervasive. I think it got cheaper to produce.

[Luke Blanchard]

Many thanks, Dave. If I follow that 62% claim correctly the NCMEC recovered children at that rate in 1984 and the article credits the campaign with having helped, which leaves open the question of whether it helped a little or a lot.

[Jeff of Earth-J]

Our milkman's name was George. He and my dad went to high school together, and they were both in the same pinocle club. We had one of those milk boxes, too (silver aluminum and insulated). After we stopped taking home delivery, my dad used it as a minnow bucket on fishing trips. I think it's still in my mom's garage.