Cultural Realities for the Class of 2012

Every year for the past 11 years, Beloit College in Wisconsin has issued a list of cultural truths that the current class of students entering college today know to be true. The Beloit College Mindset List serves as "a reminder of the rapidly changing frame of reference for this new generation."

Here are some of the technology-related highlights for students of the class of 2012 (approximating those born in 1990) that I find astounding. For these students:

• GPS satellite navigation systems have always been available.
• Electronic filing of tax returns has always been an option.
• IBM has never made typewriters.
• They may have been given a Nintendo Game Boy to play with in the crib.
• Employers have always been able to do credit checks on employees.
• Caller ID has always been available on phones.
• Windows 3.0 operating system made IBM PCs user-friendly the year they were born.
• The Hubble Space Telescope has always been eavesdropping on the heavens.

Caller ID has always been available. Growing up, we had phones with cords that were attached to  walls. You had to answer the phone to find out who was calling... And if someone was already on the phone when you tried to call them, you got a busy signal. Some people used pagers. In fact, I didn't have a cell phone until I went to college. Most people had PCs, not MacBooks.

Clearly, things are much different today. College students are equipped with a whole new set of technologies that are commonplace: smart phones, iPads and e-book readers among them. Does this mean their lives are easier because of the technologies available to them? Not necessarily. However,
it's important to keep in mind how the tools are changing from year to year.

The Beloit College Mindset Lists can be found here for the graduating classes of 2002 through 2014.