The Mindset Lists

[Shangas]

I found this on my local news website, and thought it might be of interest here.

http://news.theage.com.au/breaking-...-dog-michelangelo-a-virus-20100818-128sx.html

The "Mindset Lists" are a series of publications. They're basically questionnaires presented to university students every year, and they're designed to track changes in society. First published in 1998, they seek to determine how fast society is changing, and how transient things are.

For example, some things highlighted included how students who graduated from university in 200(X) (insert year there), did not know...

- How to write cursive.
- That Germany was once a divided country.
- How to use a typewriter.
- What 'carbon paper' is.
- That Beethoven was a composer before he was a dog in a movie.

And other societal changes.

I thought it'd make interesting discussions. In a way, it reminds me of the "Vintage things that have disappeared in your lifetime" thread. But in a more current way.

 

[HudsonHawk]

I found this on my local news website, and thought it might be of interest here.

http://news.theage.com.au/breaking-...-dog-michelangelo-a-virus-20100818-128sx.html

The "Mindset Lists" are a series of publications. They're basically questionnaires presented to university students every year, and they're designed to track changes in society. First published in 1998, they seek to determine how fast society is changing, and how transient things are.

For example, some things highlighted included how students who graduated from university in 200(X) (insert year there), did not know...

- How to write cursive.
- That Germany was once a divided country.
- How to use a typewriter.
- What 'carbon paper' is.
- That Beethoven was a composer before he was a dog in a movie.

I graduated from "university" in 1992. A few comments:

1. Whenever someone says they don't know how to write cursive, I ask how they sign their name. They usually just give me funny looks.
2. I learned to type on a typewriter in the early 80's, but never used carbon paper. We had photocopiers and "ditto" machines by then.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Maybe we just have smarter kids up here, but all the twentysomethings I know are able to write in cursive. It isn't exactly Palmer Penmanship, but it's legible.

I gave a typewriter to one of the kids from work as a graduation present a couple years ago. She's an aspiring writer and has always wanted to own one, so even if they don't learn on them in school anymore, they haven't vanished completely from memory.

What dog in a movie? Wasn't Beethoven a Charlie Brown character?

 

[HudsonHawk]

Maybe we just have smarter kids up here, but all the twentysomethings I know are able to write in cursive. It isn't exactly Palmer Penmanship, but it's legible.

20-somethings...yes. But it hasn't been taught in schools for a while, so it's a 50/50 bet that a high schooler can, and almost certain that anyone in the 9th grade or younger cannot. It will not be long until it's common in the working world.

What dog in a movie? Wasn't Beethoven a Charlie Brown character?

You're thinking of Schroeder, the piano player who loved Beethoven. And with whom Lucy was in love.

 

[Stray Cat]

For example, some things highlighted included how students who graduated from university in 200(X) (insert year there), did not know...

- How to write cursive.
- That Germany was once a divided country.
- How to use a typewriter.
- What 'carbon paper' is.
- That Beethoven was a composer before he was a dog in a movie.

I graduated high school in 2005.
Let me see:
I write cursive just fine - it's not an art work, but practice makes perfect!
Germany? Not only divided, but some of the magazines I own have "printed in West Germany" on them... I still dread Polizeistaat!
I used my mothers typewritter, pretending to be a Secreatary (don't ask..)
Carbon paper.. I remember a funny story: I'd take four papers, sanwithcing carbon-paper and draw one TeenageNinjaTurtle.. and voila!.. four turtles done with the pain of drawing only one. THAT was a way to "copy & paste" back in the day when I didn't even know you guise had Apple computer and all that.
Beethoven the dog?
You got me there - I had to Google that one. Never saw; doubt I missed much.

What I can tell you, nowadays we don't know most of things Home Economic teaches - since they've canceled it when I was about five years old.

 

[Shangas]

For those who are confused, "Beethoven" was the name of a dog-character in a series of movies...

I graduated highschool in 2005, and university in 2013. I think was one of the last generations in Australia, at least, to be taught cursive handwriting in school. And in my childhood, I was 'old' enough, just barely, to remember a time when household writing was done on a typewriter instead of a computer, and the ritual of changing typewriter ribbons and paper.

When I was a child, I remember stuff like learning about the Soviet Union. It was in its dying days, granted, but I knew what it was. I was four or five, when it finally caved in.

 

[Luftwaffles]

Ow, my intelligence.
To be fair, the reason I never learned cursive was because I was moving a lot (Army brat, don't judge me), and during the period I was supposed to learn it in my school (First grade) I ended up moving to Hawaii, and the school there didn't teach it until second grade. I only stayed for a year, so when I came back (In second grade), it was too late to learn it. The rest of these I knew about, however, and I'm going to be a senior in high school this year.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

In a high school somewhere in America...

Q: Which President was an actor?
A: Cliff Robertson the PT boat dude

 

[HudsonHawk]

Ow, my intelligence.
To be fair, the reason I never learned cursive was because I was moving a lot (Army brat, don't judge me), and during the period I was supposed to learn it in my school (First grade) I ended up moving to Hawaii, and the school there didn't teach it until second grade. I only stayed for a year, so when I came back (In second grade), it was too late to learn it. The rest of these I knew about, however, and I'm going to be a senior in high school this year.

Why do you think 7 is too old to learn cursive writing?

On a side note, how do you sign your name?

 

[Shangas]

Hahaha.

Ronald Reagan.

Y'know it occurs to me, before very long, 9/11 will be something that people will hear about secondhand. I was 13 when it happened. It's scary to think that it's been long enough already, that there is a whole generation or more of kids, who will grow up not knowing about it in any other way but through history-books and stories.

When I was in school, I learnt what was called "Victorian Cursive", which is in my mind, one of the ugliest versions of cursive handwriting ever. I've been fighting the fight to not write my lowercase Ks and Zs with loops my whole life.

 

[HudsonHawk]

In a high school somewhere in America...

Q: Which President was an actor?
A: Cliff Robertson the PT boat dude

Isn't that from Born In East L.A.?

"Who's the President of the United States?"

"Oh, that's easy...that guy who used to be on Death Valley Days...John Wayne..."

 

[HudsonHawk]

Hahaha.

Ronald Reagan.

Y'know it occurs to me, before very long, 9/11 will be something that people will hear about secondhand. I was 13 when it happened. It's scary to think that it's been long enough already, that there is a whole generation or more of kids, who will grow up not knowing about it in any other way but through history-books and stories.

Part of my current work takes me periodically to Kuwait. The Gulf War was a significant event in my adult life, as well as most anyone's at the time. When you go to Kuwait now, there is a whole generation, indeed professional working folks, who have no recollection of the war, no frame of reference other than it's something you learned in history class. They talk about it the same way American kids talk about Vietnam or WWII. It's amazing to think how quickly things move on.

 

[Stray Cat]

It's amazing to think how quickly things move on.

Yup.
I remember the time we passed notes on classes.
(there's a thing New Kids wouldn't know much)

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

The Complete 2013 List

1. For these students, Martha Graham, Pan American Airways, Michael Landon, Dr. Seuss, Miles Davis, The Dallas Times Herald, Gene Roddenberry, and Freddie Mercury have always been dead.
2. Dan Rostenkowski, Jack Kevorkian, and Mike Tyson have always been felons.
3. The Green Giant has always been Shrek, not the big guy picking vegetables.
4. They have never used a card catalog to find a book.
5. Margaret Thatcher has always been a former prime minister.
6. Salsa has always outsold ketchup.
7. Earvin "Magic" Johnson has always been HIV-positive.
8. Tattoos have always been very chic and highly visible.
9. They have been preparing for the arrival of HDTV all their lives.
10. Rap music has always been main stream. :doh:
11. Chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream has always been a flavor choice.
12. Someone has always been building something taller than the Willis (née Sears) Tower in Chicago.
13. The KGB has never officially existed.
14. Text has always been hyper.
15. They never saw the “Scud Stud” (but there have always been electromagnetic stud finders.)
16. Babies have always had a Social Security Number.
17. They have never had to “shake down” an oral thermometer.
18. Bungee jumping has always been socially acceptable.
19. They have never understood the meaning of R.S.V.P.
20. American students have always lived anxiously with high-stakes educational testing.
21. Except for the present incumbent, the President has never inhaled.
22. State abbreviations in addresses have never had periods.
23. The European Union has always existed.
24. McDonald's has always been serving Happy Meals in China.
25. Condoms have always been advertised on television.
26. Cable television systems have always offered telephone service and vice versa.
27. Christopher Columbus has always been getting a bad rap.
28. The American health care system has always been in critical condition.
29. Bobby Cox has always managed the Atlanta Braves.
30. Desperate smokers have always been able to turn to Nicoderm skin patches.
31. There has always been a Cartoon Network.
32. The nation’s key economic indicator has always been the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
33. Their folks could always reach for a Zoloft.
34. They have always been able to read books on an electronic screen.
35. Women have always outnumbered men in college.
36. We have always watched wars, coups, and police arrests unfold on television in real time.
37. Amateur radio operators have never needed to know Morse code.
38. Belarus, Moldova, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Armenia, Latvia, Georgia, Lithuania, and Estonia have always been independent nations.
39. It's always been official: President Zachary Taylor did not die of arsenic poisoning.
40. Madonna’s perspective on Sex has always been well documented.
41. Phil Jackson has always been coaching championship basketball.
42. Ozzy Osbourne has always been coming back.
43. Kevin Costner has always been Dancing with Wolves, especially on cable. [looks like they finally retired Die Hard ]
44. There have always been flat screen televisions.
45. They have always eaten Berry Berry Kix.
46. Disney’s Fantasia has always been available on video, and It’s a Wonderful Life has always been on Moscow television.
47. Smokers have never been promoted as an economic force that deserves respect.
48. Elite American colleges have never been able to fix the price of tuition.
49. Nobody has been able to make a deposit in the Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI).
50. Everyone has always known what the evening news was before the Evening News came on.
51. Britney Spears has always been heard on classic rock stations.
52. They have never been Saved by the Bell
53. Someone has always been asking: “Was Iraq worth a war?”
54. Most communities have always had a mega-church.
55. Natalie Cole has always been singing with her father.
56. The status of gays in the military has always been a topic of political debate.
57. Elizabeth Taylor has always reeked of White Diamonds.
58. There has always been a Planet Hollywood.
59. For one reason or another, California’s future has always been in doubt.
60. Agent Starling has always feared the Silence of the Lambs.
61. “Womyn” and “waitperson” have always been in the dictionary.
62. Members of Congress have always had to keep their checkbooks balanced since the closing of the House Bank.
63. There has always been a computer in the Oval Office.
64. CDs have never been sold in cardboard packaging.
65. Avon has always been “calling” in a catalog.
66. NATO has always been looking for a role.
67. Two Koreas have always been members of the UN.
68. Official racial classifications in South Africa have always been outlawed.
69. The NBC Today Show has always been seen on weekends.
70. Vice presidents of the United States have always had real power.
71. Conflict in Northern Ireland has always been slowly winding down.
72. Migration of once independent media like radio, TV, videos and compact discs to the computer has never amazed them.
73. Nobody has ever responded to “Help, I’ve fallen and I can’t get up.”
74. Congress could never give itself a mid-term raise.
75. There has always been blue Jell-O.

 

[Stray Cat]

8. Tattoos have always been very chic and highly visible.
*yucky*

13. The KGB has never officially existed.
The KGB HAS never existed.

19. They have never understood the meaning of R.S.V.P.
:rofl: Sad, but true. (no wonder no one answered my invitation..)

38. Belarus, Moldova, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Armenia, Latvia, Georgia, Lithuania, and Estonia have always been independent nations.
..that is: if they knew where they are

52. They have never been Saved by the Bell
Still remember the Theme song..

..but what the *bleep* is "blue Jell-O"?!

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

..but what the *bleep* is "blue Jell-O"?!

You don't want to know.

13. The KGB has never officially existed.
The KGB HAS never existed.

:rofl:

The KGB is a state of mind. Even Putin thinks he's James Bond.

 

[Shangas]

RSVP - Respondez Si vous plait - "Please Respond/Reply" in French.

75. There has always been blue Jell-O.

"Dude, you can TOTALLY taste the blue..."

What?

61. “Womyn” and “waitperson” have always been in the dictionary.

God help us...

4. They have never used a card catalog to find a book.

I remember those! What a bloody nightmare...

 

[HudsonHawk]

The Complete 2013 List
17. They have never had to “shake down” an oral thermometer.

Or even know what the "other" kind is? Ouch!!

 

[HudsonHawk]

..but what the *bleep* is "blue Jell-O"?!

The world officially went to hell the moment "blue" became a flavor.

 

[Shangas]

The Complete List of Mindset Lists (starting with the first published list, in 2002)

The text of the first-ever "Mindset List", from 2002

The lists for all other following years, may be read on the link above (they're listed down the right side of the screen):

The people starting college this fall across the nation were born in 1980.

They have no meaningful recollection of the Reagan era, and did not know he had ever been shot.

They were prepubescent when the Persian Gulf War was waged.

Black Monday 1987 is as significant to them as the Great Depression.

There has only been one Pope. They can only remember one other president.

They were 11 when the Soviet Union broke apart, and do not remember the Cold War.

They have never feared a nuclear war. "The Day After" is a pill to them—not a movie.

They are too young to remember the Space Shuttle Challenger blowing up.

Their lifetime has always included AIDS.

They never had a polio shot, and likely, do not know what it is.

Bottle caps have not always been screw off, but have always been plastic. They have no idea what a pull top can looks like.

Atari pre-dates them, as do vinyl albums.

The expression "you sound like a broken record" means nothing to them.

They have never owned a record player.

They have likely never played Pac Man, and have never heard of "Pong."

Star Wars looks very fake to them, and the special effects are pathetic.

There have always been red M&Ms, and blue ones are not new. What do you mean there used to be beige ones?

They may never have heard of an 8-track, and chances are they've never heard or seen one.

The compact disc was introduced when they were one year old.

As far as they know, stamps have always cost about 32 cents.

They have always had an answering machine.

Most have never seen a TV set with only 13 channels, nor have they seen a black & white TV.

They have always had cable.

There have always been VCRs, but they have no idea what Beta is.

They cannot fathom what it was like not having a remote control.

They were born the year Walkmen were introduced by Sony.

Roller-skating has always meant in-line for them.

"The Tonight Show" has always been with Jay Leno.

They have no idea when or why Jordache jeans were cool.

Popcorn has always been cooked in the microwave.

They have never seen Larry Bird play, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is a football player.

They never took a swim and thought about Jaws.

The Vietnam War is as ancient history to them as WWI and WWII or even the Civil War.

They have no idea that Americans were ever held hostage in Iran.

They can't imagine what hard contact lenses are.

They don't know who Mork was, or where he was from.

They never heard the terms "Where's the Beef?", "I'd walk a mile for a Camel" or "De plane, de plane!"

They do not care who shot J.R. and have no idea who J.R. is.

The Titanic was found? I thought we always knew where it was.

Michael Jackson has always been white.

Kansas, Boston, Chicago, America, and Alabama are all places—not music groups.

McDonald's never came in Styrofoam containers.

There has always been MTV, and it has always included non-musical shows.