College students are living in another world

0 Comments | Insight on the News, May 17, 1999 | by Lisa Anderson, | Stephen Goode

Do you look back on your college years as though they were only yesterday? Well, unless they literally were yesterday, chances are you're more dated than a freshly stamped can of Pepsi. (Note: If you don't know that Pepsi now date-stamps its soda, you're really out of the loop!)

Case in point: Each year, Wisconsin's Beloit College distributes an information sheet to its faculty as a way of connecting them with the mind-set of incoming freshmen. Here's a small sampling of things to keep in mind:

1. Students starting college this fall were born between 1980 and 1981.

2. They have no meaningful recollection of the Reagan era.

3. They never have feared a nuclear war.

4. Their lifetime always has included AIDS.

5. Most never have seen a black-and-white TV.

6. They've never had a polio shot.

7. The compact disc was introduced when they were 1 year old.

8. The Tonight Show always has been with Jay Leno.

9. There only has been one pope.

10. Blue M&Ms are not new.

Likewise, there's this generation-gap illustration that was circulated jokingly after the release of the movie Titanic: Two teenagers were sitting in the theater, popcorn in hand, when they overheard the woman in front of them whisper to her husband, "I can't wait to see the special effects as the ship sinks." Irritated, the teens groaned in unison, "Aw, come on, lady, now you gave away the ending!"

Don't complain, kids -- at least it wasn't in black and white.