Today's sign of your advancing age

Beloit College released its annual Mindset List today, reminding all of us who have already graduated from college about the lives of today's college freshmen:

The class of 2012 has grown up in an era where computers and rapid communication are the norm, and colleges no longer trumpet the fact that residence halls are “wired” and equipped with the latest hardware. These students will hardly recognize the availability of telephones in their rooms since they have seldom utilized landlines during their adolescence. They will continue to live on their cell phones and communicate via texting. Roommates, few of whom have ever shared a bedroom, have already checked out each other on Facebook where they have shared their most personal thoughts with the whole world.

It is a multicultural, politically correct and “green” generation that has hardly noticed the threats to their privacy and has never feared the Russians and the Warsaw Pact.

Some of the more amusing ones (well, you may find them amusing; then again, you may not, particularly the last one):

• Gas stations have never fixed flats, but most serve cappuccino.
• As a precursor to “whatever,” they have recognized that some people “just don’t get it.”
• WWW has never stood for World Wide Wrestling.
• IBM has never made typewriters.
• Roseanne Barr has never been invited to sing the National Anthem again.
• Caller ID has always been available on phones.
• Soft drink refills have always been free.
• They have never known life without Seinfeld references from a show about “nothing.”
• The Green Bay Packers (almost) always had the same starting quarterback.