Beloit College publishes an annual list of characteristics of their incoming freshman class. This helps them be sensitive to what their new students do and do not assume. Several of the items each year are related to the applications and implications of the Internet and information technology. Here are the IT-related items for the class of 2015:
- There has always been an Internet ramp onto the information highway.
- They “swipe” cards, not merchandise.
- As they’ve grown up on websites and cell phones, adult experts have constantly fretted about their alleged deficits of empathy and concentration.
- Their school’s “blackboards” have always been getting smarter.
- Amazon has never been just a river in South America.
- Video games have always had ratings.
- Dial-up is soooooooooo last century!
- Music has always been available via free downloads.
- Electric cars have always been humming in relative silence on the road.
- Some of them have been inspired to actually cook by watching the Food Channel.
- Their parents have always been able to create a will and other legal documents online.
- They’ve often broken up with their significant others via texting, Facebook, or MySpace.
- They won’t go near a retailer that lacks a website.
- “PC” has come to mean Personal Computer, not Political Correctness.
- The New York Times and the Boston Globe have never been rival newspapers.
These are just the items relating to IT for this year. There is a lot more from the Beloit list and other schools at the Mindset List web site.
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