It is time for the annual Beloit College Mindset List, providing an often-amusing look at “the cultural touchstones that shape the lives of students entering college.” This is a compilation of things or ideas that 18-year-olds have lived with their entire life. In other words, it is a reminder of what life was like in 1991.

Beloit’s  list serves to remind old people just how much things have changed since “the good old days,” and to remind young people of their need to flee voguishiality (ok, that isn’t a word) through the reading of history.

Here are a few of the items I found interesting:

#4 They have never used a card catalog to find a book.

#5 Margaret Thatcher has always been a former prime minister.

#17 They have never had to “shake down” an oral thermometer.

#19 Condoms have always been advertised on television.

#20 Bobby Cox has always managed the Atlanta Braves.

#21 There has always been a Cartoon Network.

#23 They have always been able to read books on an electronic screen.

#24 We have always watched wars, coups, and police arrests unfold on television in real time.

#39 Ozzy Osbourne has always been coming back.

#68 Official racial classifications in South Africa have always been outlawed.

#72 Migration of once independent media like radio, TV, videos and compact discs to the computer has never amazed them.

HT: Ed Stetzer