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Every year Beloit College in Beloit, Wisconsin publishes what it calls “The Mindset List” — facts and figures about the incoming crop of freshmen so professors will be able to relate to their new students. Beloit says the list is a reminder that the world view of today’s new college students is significantly different from the intellectual framework of those students who entered only a few years earlier. For perspective, students heading into their first year of college this year were generally born in 1997. A sampling from the Beloit College Mindset List for the class of 2019:

1. Among those who have never been alive in their lifetimes are Princess Diana, Notorious B.I.G., Jacques Cousteau and Mother Teresa.

2. Google has always been there.

3. They have never licked a postage stamp.

4. Email has become the new “formal” communication, while texts and tweets remain enclaves for the casual.

5. The announcement of someone being the “first woman” to hold a position has only impressed their parents.

6. Charlton Heston is recognized for waving a rifle over his head as much as for waving his staff over the Red Sea.

7. Colour photos have always adorned the front page of The New York Times.

8. If you say “around the turn of the century,” they may well ask you, “which one?”

9. Splenda has always been a sweet option in North America.

10. TV has always been in such high definition that they could see the pores of actors and the grimaces of quarterbacks.