Each year, I provide Beloit College’s overview about the incoming class of college freshmen. This year’s list is a bit different for me as these attributes reflect the mindsets of students born in 1999. This is the birth year of our firstborn son who is enrolled in a Computer Science program. So if you are getting to be an old guy like me, today’s blog may be more than just facts!
I have edited Beloit’s list to 30 items.
The Class of 2021 – 30 Things You Need To Know
- Their classmates could include Eddie Murphy’s Zola and Mel Gibson’s Tommy, or Jackie Evancho singing down the hall.
- They are the last class to be born in the 1900s, the last of the Millennials — enter next year, on cue, Generation Z! (though this may be disputed by some who would state that Gen Z began graduating from University last spring).
- They are the first generation for whom a “phone” has been primarily a video game, direction finder, electronic telegraph, and research library.
- Electronic signatures have always been as legally binding as the pen-on-paper kind.
- In college, they will often think of themselves as consumers, who’ve borrowed a lot of money to be there.
- Peanuts comic strips have always been repeats.
- They have largely grown up in a floppy-less world.
- There have always been emojis to cheer us up.
- It is doubtful that they have ever used or heard the high-pitched whine of a dial-up modem.
- 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.
- Their folks have always been able to get reward points by paying their taxes to the IRS on plastic.
- In their lifetimes, Blackberry has gone from being a wild fruit to being a communications device to becoming a wild fruit again.
- They have always been searching for Pokemon.
- Dora the Explorer and her pet monkey Boots helped to set them on the course of discovery.
- By the time they entered school, laptops were outselling desktops.
- Once on campus, they will find that college syllabi, replete with policies about disability, non-discrimination, and learning goals, might be longer than some of their reading assignments.
- As toddlers, they may have dined on some of that canned food hoarded in case of Y2K.
- Whatever the subject, there’s always been a blog for it.
- Globalization has always been both a powerful fact of life and a source of incessant protest.
- One out of four major league baseball players has always been born outside the United States.
- A movie scene longer than two minutes has always seemed like an eternity.
- The Latin music industry has always had its own Grammy Awards.
- As toddlers, they may have taught their grandparents how to Skype.
- The BBC has always had a network in the U.S. where they speak American.
- There has always been a Monster in their corner when looking for a job.
- Wikipedia has steadily gained acceptance by their teachers.
- Justin Timberlake has always been a solo act.
- Women have always scaled both sides of Everest and rowed across the Atlantic.
- Bill Clinton has always been Hillary Clinton’s aging husband.
I always have fun doing this. What are your thoughts on The Class of 2021 – 30 Things You Need To Know? Is there anything that I have missed or maybe things you would have included in this list?
Jeff Suderman is a futurist, consultant, and professor who works in the field of organizational development. He partners with clients to improve culture, leadership, teamwork, organizational alignment, strategy and organizational future-readiness. He resides in Palm Desert, California. Twitter: @jlsuderman Email: jeff@jeffsuderman.com
Source: Beloit
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