Blog Archives
The Mindset List®–of AMERICAN SPORTS–for the Class of 2018 Warning to Coaches: If you are out to inspire your young charges by references to Joe Montana or Steffi Graf, be prepared for the blank stares you will get in response. One of the most common reactions we get to our annual Mindset List, which examines the world of 18 year-old entering college students, is “Are you guys trying to make me feel old?” Yes, eighteen years happens fast and brings lots of change. This is particularly true in sports. Does it seem just yesterday that the Braves won the World Series and the Cowboys won the Super Bowl? Can you believe that when most of today’s eighteen year olds were Read on »
Mandela 12, Madonna 0 Tom McBride and Ron Nief A quarter of a century ago the author Bill Bryson found himself back in his home state after two decades abroad, and—quite by accident—on the campus of University of Iowa. While there, he got quite a shock. An old friend he was visiting in Iowa City explained to Bryson that these kids he was encountering around town, who to them looked to be about 14, were no longer “smoking dope” but were actually—wonder of wonders—“trying to get an education…so that they could become insurance salesmen and computer programmers…and make a lot of money so they can buy more penny loafers and Madonna albums.” Bryson, who reported all this in The Lost Read on »
Author contacts: Ron Nief (608-770-2625) niefr@beloit.edu Tom McBride (608-312-9508) mcbridet@beloit.edu Beloit College releases the Mindset List for this year’s entering class of first-year students, the Class of 2018 Beloit, Wis. — When the Class of 2018 arrives on campuses in the coming weeks, they will come with a view of the world quite distinct from their mentors. Most born in 1996, they have always had The Daily Show to set them straight, always been able to secure immediate approval and endorsement for their ideas through “likes” on their Facebook pages, and have rarely heard the term “bi-partisan agreement.” Each August since 1998, Beloit College in Beloit, Wis., has released the Beloit College Mindset List, providing a look at the cultural touchstones and experiences that Read on »
Learn Swahili and Slow Down Time! By Aarti Chawla and Tom McBride Can we control the passage of time? No—but, once we understand how time “feels,” we can influence how we experience it. Among the millions of people who respond each year to the Beloit College Mindset List, many report shock in learning that various events, which seemed to happen just yesterday, actually occurred nearly twenty years ago. When the co-creators of the List state that for an entering college class “Carl Sagan has always been dead,” older respondents say the death of Sagan (or Kurt Cobain or Princess Diana) seems to have happened last month, not two decades ago. A well-known factoid is that time speeds up for people Read on »
In association with legacy.com The Mindset List® Project proudly presents THE MINDSET LIST® OF DEATH AND REMEMBRANCE: From Cherubs to Cryonics. Beautifully illustrated, it surveys shifting American attitudes towards mortality and memory over 350 years–from Colonial times to 2100. The List ranges from cherubs on grave markers to cryonics, the technology of freezing dead bodies in hope that someday they may be brought back to life. You’ll find our latest List to be a mind-bending look at the changing American landscape over more than three centuries. To consider American death is to consider American life. Just go to http://www.legacy.com/life-and-death/
BREAKING UP ON FACEBOOK! How Today’s High Tech Millennials Fall Out of Love An Intergenerational Conversation Between Joan Gackstatter and Tom McBride Millennial Joan Gackstatter (not her real name), is currently a writer living in New York. Baby Boomer Tom McBride is co-author of the annual Beloit College Mindset List®, The Mindset Lists of American History (Wiley, 2011), and a forthcoming study of mid twentieth century popular culture (Sourcebooks, 2014). . Here’s part of their discussion about love in cyberspace: Tom: Here at The Mindset List® we’re always tracking what’s new. The Seattle Times called us “America’s cultural timekeepers.” We take that seriously. Yet we often find that a lot has stayed the same. Joan: Yeah, Tom, but this time Read on »
As the calendar flips to 2014, announcements will fill the media of the first child born in the New Year. Parents, veteran and new, will start preparing for the future, imagining what it will be like when these precious bundles grow up, graduate from high school, and head off to college around 2032. Ron Nief and Tom McBride, authors of the annual Beloit College Mindset List, offer their yearly advisory on the questions these parents should be prepared for. Here is their counsel: “At some point you are going to have to explain yourself and your generation to the inquiring minds of your children, so it is best to recognize now how fast things are going to change.” As a guide Read on »
WeRHistory A Guide to THE MINDSET LISTS OF AMERICAN HISTORY INTRODUCTION WeRHistory is a guide to discussion of the past and do-it-yourself history. As co-authors, we want our readers to explore the underlying message of THE MINDSET LISTS OF AMERICAN HISTORY: From Typewriters to Text Messages, What 10 Generations of Americans Think is Normal. As the first chapter says, “History Has Always Been Us.” Each of us does our bit for history every day. We make personal decisions that alter our individual history and collective decisions that make history. We are all part of the historical parade from birth to grave. We are all historical personages and actors in a historical drama. We not only are history; we can Read on »