All in Perspective

Every year, Beloit College in Beloit, WI, publishes its Mindset List of 70 items that "provide a look at the cultural touchstones that have shaped the lives of today’s first-year [college] students."

Here's a few highlights for the class of 2011.

• They never “rolled down” a car window.
• Nelson Mandela has always been free and a force in South Africa.
• Pete Rose has never played baseball.
• Russia has always had a multi-party political system.
• Classmates could include Michelle Wie, Jordin Sparks, and Bart Simpson.
• Al Gore has always been running for president or thinking about it.
• U2 has always been more than a spy plane.
• Fox has always been a major network.
• They drove their parents crazy with the Beavis and Butt-Head laugh.
• The “Blue Man Group” has always been everywhere.
• Thanks to MySpace and Facebook, autobiography can happen in real time.
• Smoking has never been allowed in public spaces in France.
• Tiananmen Square is a 2008 Olympics venue, not the scene of a massacre.
• MTV has never featured music videos.
• The space program has never really caught their attention except in disasters.
• They get much more information from Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert than from the newspaper.
• They’re always texting 1 n other.
• They never saw Johnny Carson live on television.
• The World Wide Web has been an online tool since they were born.
• Dilbert has always been ridiculing cubicle culture.

Complete Mindset List