Class of '12: A life, and future, in digital world

August 19, CNN

MILWAUKEE, Wisconsin (AP) -- Students entering college this fall have lived their whole lives in a digital world -- where GPS has always been available, phones have always had caller ID and tax returns could always be filed online.

The incoming freshmen, born mostly in 1990, also grew up knowing only Jay Leno on "The Tonight Show."

Those are some of the 60 cultural landmarks on the Beloit College Mindset List, an annual compilation that offers a glimpse of the world as seen through the eyes of each incoming class. This year's list is being released Tuesday by the private school of 1,300 near the Wisconsin-Illinois state line.

The school started producing the list in 1998 to remind professors that references familiar to them might draw blank stares from their students.

"Watergate used to be a common reference," said Ron Nief, the school's director of public affairs, who assembles the list. "But a few years ago I asked some students if they knew what Watergate was and they said that was where Monica Lewinsky lived."

Some entries on this year's list are products that have been around for the lifetimes of the Class of 2012, including karaoke machines, plastic soft drink bottles, Windows 3.0 and higher and the Nintendo Game Boy.

Other cultural markers are all but unknown to them -- IBM typewriters, Roseanne Barr's tortured version of the National Anthem, Pee-wee Herman's "Playhouse" and gas-station attendants who fix flat tires or offer to check under the hood.

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photo: Johnny who? The class of 2012 has only known Jay Leno as their late-night host.(Getty Images)