Wear wristwatch? Use e-mail? Not for Class of '14

[NJmaverick]

MILWAUKEE – For students entering college this fall, e-mail is too slow, phones have never had cords and the computers they played with as kids are now in museums.
The Class of 2014 thinks of Clint Eastwood more as a sensitive director than as Dirty Harry urging punks to "go ahead, make my day." Few incoming freshmen know how to write in cursive or have ever worn a wristwatch.
These are among the 75 items on this year's Beloit College Mindset List. The compilation, released Tuesday, is assembled each year by two officials at this private school of about 1,400 students in Beloit, Wis.
The list is meant to remind teachers that cultural references familiar to them might draw blank stares from college freshmen born mostly in 1992.
Of course, it can also have the unintended consequence of making people feel old.
Remember when Dr. Jack Kevorkian, Dan Quayle or Rodney King were in the news? These kids don't.
Ever worry about a Russian missile strike on the U.S.? During these students' lives, Russians and Americans have always been living together in outer space.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100817/ap_on_re_us/us_mindset_list;_ylt=AsQUqAd1gP3Fv7RRpKgSjcys0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTFpa2kxOHZlBHBvcwMzNgRzZWMDYWNjb3JkaW9uX21vc3RfcG9wdWxhcgRzbGsDd2VhcndyaXN0d2F0

Here is the entire list

http://www.beloit.edu/mindset/2014.php

[rug]

1. That's surprising about email.

[NJmaverick]

2. Text and twitter are surpassing it

here's the entire list

http://www.beloit.edu/mindset/2014.php

[rug]

3. "12. Clint Eastwood is better known as a sensitive director than as Dirty Harry".

:rofl:

[Fleshdancer]

4. I swear these types of articles are written to make us all feel old

I hope the no email thing is wrong. It simply isn't practical for kids to not learn something that is necessary for many jobs. Do kids still take typing classes in HS? I did, but I think the classes (assuming they still exist) should also include a chapter on email etiquette. Just my 2 random cents on the topic. :D

[NJmaverick]

7. Good question about typing, although with no typewriters what would they call it?

keyboarding?

[Posteritatis]

16. I'd assume the email thing is more about casual use

IM, Facebook, etc., (and, obviously, forums like this) are my main means of communicating online with people on a day-to-day basis, but anything even vaguely formal, professional or academic, I use email.

I wouldn't be surprised at all if there's a big herd of college students out there who use email exclusively or primarily for communication within their school, stuff like that, and I strongly doubt at least that much is going to be vanishing anytime soon.

[Kali]

23. "but anything even vaguely formal, professional or academic, I use email"

I'm old enough to have replaced the word "email" with "paper":rofl:

[fabsfour]

20. They learn to type, but way before high school

I think it was maybe 2nd or 3rd grade when they started learning. Since most kids use computers before kindergarten, they all learn to type quickly long before we ever did.

They all know how to use email, it's just not how they choose to communicate. If my dd (16) wants to tell a friend something, she either texts, uses Facebook IM, or posts on the friend's wall. In her school, all the kids have a school email and the school admin and her teachers use it to send information. She does check it, just not as often as she checks her texts.

But I don't think they really ever learn email etiquette, at least my dd hasn't through sophomore year of high school. Good point. I talk to her about it, but it should be included in a business writing type of class I think.

[NewJeffCT]

5. I'm 43 and nobody my age uses wristwatches anymore

I remember we were down in the basement for my D&D game a while back, and I had asked what time it was, and everybody in the group reached for their phones...

and, this was like 7 people, all between 30 and 50.

[Fleshdancer]

6. The clock is the best part about having a cell phone

The only people I know who ever wear watches these days treat it more like jewelry.

[NJmaverick]

8. I still have a watch and enjoy the convenience that it offers up

although a 17 YO girl who saw my watch couldn't figure out how I could tell time with it, since there wasn't any numbers.

[grace0418]

12. I wear a watch. I can't check my cell phone when swimming or working out.

I don't take my watch off most of the time. It's water proof, shock proof, and solar powered.

[uncommon]

9. Yeah, I am 29 and I haven't worn a watch since high school. But I do email - mostly

for work. Otherwise I text or use Facebook.

[NewJeffCT]

10. I still use email a lot

I've received some spam texts, but never actually texted.

[NJmaverick]

11. This 17 YO girl I knew saw my watch. It's one without numbers

she didn't know how I could read the time on it.

[Posteritatis]

17. I kinda want a watch like that that runs backwards

My wall clock's along those lines - runs backwards and the face is mirrored, so at 3:00 the hands are at what's normally the 9:00 position. You could hear the fuses blowing in my niece's head when she first saw it.

[tammywammy]

13. 29 here too

30 in a couple of weeks. I stopped wearing a watch back when I was probably 20.

I also do email a lot, work related, but between friends it's all texting and a little facebook.

[Tuesday Afternoon]

14. I wear a watch because I need the second hand for work.

like I don't feel old enough already.

[baldguy]

15. Bud Selig has always been the Commissioner of Major League Baseball.

For some reason, this depresses me the most.

[joeybee12]

18. Makes me nearly suicidal...n/t

[old mark]

19. My youngest brother works in a college - he mentioned something to students

about "winding a watch"...they had no idea what he was talking about.
This was about 5 years ago...

mark

[proteus_lives]

21. I've noticed the watch thing.

I couldn't leave the house with a wrist-watch.

When I'm out the door, I do the check my father taught me. Keys, wallet, watch, phone, zipper up? Let's go.

[Arugula Latte]

22. I'm 44 and haven't worn a watch for a couple years.

But, yeah, these things are always fascinating.

[grace0418]

24. I recently witnessed the younger generation's penchant for texting firsthand. Unfortunately

it was in a web development class I was taking. There were three approximately 20-year-old girls in the class and they spent every class with at least 2 or 3 IM conversations going on at once, in addition to texting on their phones the whole time. Sometimes they we even IM-ing each other. The part that sucked is they were always "lost" and would hold up the class while the instruction re-explained every little concept. They drove me fucking nuts.

One time our teacher had an emergency and was an hour late for class (the class went from 10-5 every Saturday). It was okay because we often spent the first hour working on an in-class assignment to reinforce what we'd learned the week before. So another teacher from the school gave us the assignment and we all got to work. Except for the youngsters. Two of them just started blabbing about god knows what at top volume (in a way it was amazing they were actually speaking and not IM-ing each other). And they wouldn't shut up. The rest of us were trying to figure out a fairly complicated project that required a lot of planning and working out pixel dimensions, etc. and they treated it like a fucking coffee break.

I finally had to ask them to pipe down. It sucked and made me feel a 1000 years old but I couldn't take their chattering for another minute. It made me feel sad for kids under 25. They have the attention spans of gnats.