What’s Shaping the Minds of This Year’s Freshman Class, the Class of 2021

Each August since 1998, Beloit College has released the Beloit College Mindset List, providing a look at the cultural touchstones that shape the lives of students entering college this fall.

Today, the Mindset List of the Class of 2021 was released.

The creation of Beloit’s former Public Affairs Director Ron Nief and Keefer Professor of the Humanities Tom McBride, authors of The Mindset Lists of American History: From Typewriters to Text Messages, What Ten Generations of Americans Think Is Normal, it was originally created as a reminder to faculty to be aware of dated references. It quickly became an internationally monitored catalog of the changing worldview of each new college generation.

Leaders—of all ages—need to understand what has shaped the lives of today’s entering college freshman class, those 18-year-olds who:

• Are the last class to be born in the 1900s, making them the last of the Millennials.
• Are the first generation for whom a “phone” has been primarily a video game, direction finder, electronic telegraph or a research library.
• Have always had emojis to cheer them up.

For those who cannot comprehend that it has been 18 years since this year’s entering college students were born, they should recognize that the next four years will go even faster, confirming the authors’ belief that “generation gaps have always needed glue.”

Here are a few nuggets from this year’s Mindset Class for the Class of 2021. You must read the entire list here!

• They are the first generation to grow up with Watson outperforming Sherlock.
• Amazon has always invited consumers to follow the arrow from A to Z.
• They have always been searching for Pokemon.
• By the time they entered school, laptops were outselling desktops.
• Whatever the subject, there’s always been a blog for it.
• Ketchup has always come in green.
• The BBC has always had a network in the U.S. where they speak American.
• Family Guy is the successor to the Father Knows Best they never knew.

You can find the rest of the list here.

This article originally appeared here.