WASHINGTON — It’s that time of year again: your annual chance to feel very, very old (besides your birthday, that is).
Beloit College has released their annual Mindset List, which takes a look at things that incoming college freshmen have always had in their lives.
Most incoming freshmen were born in 1997, which means that in their lifetimes:
- They have never licked a postage stamp;
- Hybrid cars have always been mass-produced;
- They have never known a world without Google, “South Park” or Harry Potter books;
- They have also never known a world with The Notorious B.I.G., Princess Diana, Jacques Cousteau or Mother Teresa;
- “The Lion King” has always been on Broadway;
- There has always been at least one place where medical marijuana was legal;
- And Paul McCartney and Elton John have always been knights.
The three Beloit professors who compile the list each year say their purpose is to make people who don’t yet realize they’re old completely miserable. No, wait — it’s to remind their faculty colleagues to be careful about making cultural references their students won’t get.
Such as referring to the turn of the century; they may well ask, “Which one?”
