Last Updated on January 28, 2022
The Class of 2022, about to begin its freshman year of college, has a perspective that might make the rest of us feel a bit closer to retirement age.
Every year, the Mindset List, produced through Beloit College, releases facts about that year’s incoming freshmen and their perspective on the world. Here are 10 things they’re saying about the Class of 2022.
The idea was quite simple, according to its founders: the list was circulated to help remind professors that they were teaching students, not just courses. The list provides those professors with a glimpse into the mindset of the year’s freshmen.
It also gives those of us a certain age another instance of pause to feel our age a bit.
Here are 10 of the 60 items in the 20th anniversary list:
1. Parents have always been watching ‘Big Brother,’ and vice versa.
That’s scary primarily because I can’t believe that terrible reality show has actually been on the air this long!
2. They’ve grown up with stories about where their grandparents were on 11/22/63 and where their parents were on 9/11.
Yes, I’ve asked my folks about where they were on the day of the Kennedy Assassination and I’ve younger colleagues ask me about what 9/11 was like for me.
3. A visit to a bank has been a rare event.
I only go when I make a deposit…which,
4. Thumbprints have always provided log-in security — and are harder to lose — than a password.
I honestly didn’t realize they’d been around that long!
5. King Friday the 13th and Lady Elaine Fairchild have always dwelled in the Neighborhood, but only in re-runs.
And we still miss Mr. Rogers.
6. They never tasted Pepsi Twist in the U.S.
To be honest, I never have, either. Have you?
7. Mass market books have always been available exclusively as Ebooks.
Fortunately, they still know what libraries are.
8. ‘You’ve got mail’ would sound as ancient to them as ‘number, please’ would have sounded to their parents.
And, of course, they’ve never heard that horrible connection sound for dial-up.
9. Mifepristone or RU-486, commonly called the ‘abortion pill,’ has always been available in the U.S.
For my generation, I imagine the equivalent would have been something along the lines of, “Abortion has almost always been legal in the U.S.”
10. They never used a spit bowl in a dentist’s office.
Come to think of it, I haven’t seen one of those since I was a kid, but until I read that, it never really occurred to me. I guess the spit bowls got replaced with those little suction tubes?
That’s ten of the 60 items that make up their list. Check the full list out here.
