Each year the staff at Beloit College in Wisconsin puts together a list to try to give the faculty a sense of the mindset of this year's graduating high school seniors.

Here is this year's list:

• The people who are graduated from high school this spring across the nation were born in 1982.
• They have no meaningful recollection of the Reagan Era and probably did not know he had ever been shot.
• They were prepubescent when the Persian Gulf War was waged.
• Black Monday 1987 is as significant to them as the Great Depression.
• There has been only one Pope.
• They were 11 when the Soviet Union broke apart and do not remember the Cold War.
• They have never feared a nuclear war.
• They are too young to remember the space shuttle blowing up.
• Tianamen Square means nothing to them.                                                                      
• Their lifetime has always included AIDS.
• Bottle caps have always been screw off and plastic.
• Atari predates them, as do vinyl albums. The expression "you sound like a broken record" means nothing to them.
• They have never owned a record player.
• They have likely never played Pac Man and have never heard of Pong.
• They may have never heard of an 8-track. The Compact Disc was introduced when they were 1 year old.
• As far as they know, stamps have always cost about 33 cents.
• They have always had an answering machine.
• Most have never seen a TV set with only 13 channels, do not even know what UHF or VHF means, nor have they seen a black-and-white TV.
• They have always had cable.
• There has always been VCRs, but they have no idea what BETA is.
• They cannot fathom not having a remote control.
• They were born the year that Walkmen were introduced by Sony.
• Roller-skating has always meant inline for them.
• Jay Leno has always been on the Tonight Show.
• They have no idea when or why Jordache jeans were cool.
• Popcorn has always been cooked in the microwave.
• They have never seen Larry Bird play.
• They never took a swim and thought about Jaws.
• The Vietnam War is as ancient history to them as WWI, WWII and the Civil War.
• They have no idea that Americans were ever held hostage in Iran.
• They can't imagine what hard contact lenses are.
• They don't know who Mork was or where he was from.
• They never heard: "Where's the beef?", "I'd walked a mile for a Camel",nor "de plane!, de plane!"
• They do not care who shot J.R. and have no idea who J.R. is.
• The Titanic was found? They thought we always knew where it was.
• Michael Jackson has always been white.
• Kansas, Chicago, Boston, America, and Alabama are places, not groups.
• McDonalds never came in Styrofoam containers.
• There has always been MTV.
• They don't have a clue how to use a typewriter.

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