Every year at this time, Wisconsin's Beloit College releases its Mindset List to show the "cultural mindset" of incoming college freshman as a "reminder to faculty to be aware of dated references." Actually, it's an annual reminder that we're really getting ooooold.
The class of 2014 has never found Korean-made cars unusual on the Interstate and five hundred cable channels, of which they will watch a handful, have always been the norm. Since "digital" has always been in the cultural DNA, they've never written in cursive and with cell phones to tell them the time, there is no need for a wrist watch. Dirty Harry (who's that?) is to them a great Hollywood director. The America they have inherited is one of soaring American trade and budget deficits; Russia has presumably never aimed nukes at the United States and China has always posed an economic threat.
Sigh. Most of these kids were born in 1992, which is nine years after I started work here. Here's the complete list of 75 touchstones. No. 19 is "They never twisted the coiled handset wire aimlessly around their wrists while chatting on the phone," just one indication of how deprived they are.
I think we can go too far in "updating our references" to reach the younger generation. And if we do, we just help erode the body of common culture we should all -- from the youngest to the oldest -- be familiar with. We should especially avoid trying to tap into "current" slang, which changes about every five minutes.
