You may want to sit down for this one: the freshmen you see moving into dorms this week were for the most part born in 1993, have always had access to the internet, and — perhaps most disturbingly — Ferris Bueller is old enough to be their father (if he weren’t fictional, that is).
You can thank Beloit College for these factoids, which come from its annual Mindset List, a catalog of the disturbingly speedy way that references change, worldviews shift, and generation gaps gape. Some of the list’s most startling items below:
- Andre the Giant, River Phoenix, Frank Zappa, Arthur Ashe and the Commodore 64 have always been dead.
- The only significant labor disputes in their lifetimes have been in major league sports.
- There have nearly always been at least two women on the Supreme Court, and women have always commanded U.S. Navy ships.
- More Americans have always traveled to Latin America than to Europe.
- The Communist Party has never been the official political party in Russia.
- Women have always been kissing women on television.
- Their older siblings have told them about the days when Britney Spears, Justin Timberlake and Christina Aguilera were Mouseketeers.
- Music has always been available via free downloads.
- Public schools have always made space available for advertising.
- They’ve always wanted to be like Shaq or Kobe: Michael Who?
- Refugees and prisoners have always been housed by the U.S. government at Guantanamo.
- The New York Times and the Boston Globe have never been rival newspapers.
Read the whole list here.
