This list isn’t about the mindset of the class of 2014. It’s about the mindset of the people who write it. It’s about what makes them feel ancient. It’s not about how college students think at 18; it’s about how we think at 40 and 50 and 60. It’s about how we think about the markers we once drove into the ground to mark what we considered Now, and how alarming it is to note that they are farther away than they used to be.

Griping about texting is just this year’s griping about how hard it is to program a VCR so it doesn’t blink “12:00, 12:00, 12:00.” Fear of terrorism isn’t so alienatingly different from fear of the Cold War. Lady Gaga isn’t so different from what Madonna once was.

I’d come across the Beloit “mindset” list earlier today online (see here). But this article pretty effectively skewers it.

Thanks Mary M for sharing it.