There are a few articles one can anticipate every August, traditionally the slowest month for news. Reporters will go to the Gathering of the Juggalos. Bloggers will pick up the president's vacation reading list, and that can be enlightening -- remember Barack Obama reading "Freedom" in galleys, or George W. Bush checking out Camus? Another is a list produced by a small Midwestern liberal arts college that's halfway between pop theorizing and a BuzzFeed "nostalgia" post. The Beloit College "Mindset List," whose 2013 iteration was released today, even by the standards of August newsgathering, is an insult to the reader. Last year, it was covered by Time, Inside Higher Ed and the Huffington Post, among other outlets. 
 
 The "Mindset List" is a fairly lengthy list of facts that have purportedly influenced the worldview of incoming college freshmen at Wisconsin's Beloit College. It began, as the project's website indicates, "in 1998 to reflect the world view of entering first year students. It started with the members of the class of 2002, born in 1980." It was created by a professor of theory at Beloit and the college's P.R. director, "a 'Mad Men' era veteran of Madison Avenue." Don Draper couldn't have come up with a better way to call attention to a small liberal-arts college -- but, then, the term "trolling" wasn't widely used in the 1960s. That mind-set came later. 
 
 That first list gave a pretty good, if rudimentary and obvious, idea of how college students differed from their professors: "Their lifetime has always included AIDS," for example. That is pretty striking! 
 
 However, even the first list presumed that individuals spend the time between birth and matriculation at college avoiding as strenuously as possible any history books or even television. Individuals born in 1980 and matriculating in 2002, per Beloit, "have never heard of 'Pong,'" are befuddled by the expression 'you sound like a broken record," "likely" don't know what a polio shot is ... one could go on. One more: individuals born in 1980 "have no idea that Americans were ever held hostage in Iran." 
 
 Really? 
 
 I was born in 1988 and have heard of the Iran hostage crisis and "Pong," though I tend to think that people who dwell on cultural signifiers like the latter are pedantically dwelling on specifics that mean, in the broad sweep of history, very little. 
 
 Over time, Beloit's professors ran out of things like "the AIDS crisis" and delved deeper into arcana or just meaningless incidents; the list's entries often read like the setup for an observation, one that the list-makers aren't willing to make but are happy to imply. Here are the only types of entries on the mind-set list: 
 
 [any celebrity or public figure] has always been [either dead or, more commonly, famous] [something completely random that one thinks about quite infrequently] has always been the case College freshmen have never seen [consumer product that is an easy punch line -- think eight-track tapes, Betamax, etc.] OR have always been able to [thing you can do with technology] College freshmen have never known about or experienced [news event from the recent past that everyone -- EVERYONE! -- has heard of or experienced] Bad puns about technology 
 
 There are a few completely bizarre and unaccountable items on this year's list: "Gaga has never been baby talk" comes as news, given that Lady Gaga rose to fame in 2008. There are also weird quasi-jokes about these students' parents being more excited about the release of Windows 95 than having children and giving those children PlayStations in the crib -- the list is deeply hung up on technology as the primary if not sole determinant of how people live life. And there are a couple of hints of sarcastic political humor that's far more jaded and nihilistic than the typical 18-year-old's worldview, and go down sour: "The Pentagon and Congress have always been shocked, absolutely shocked, by reports of sexual harassment and assault in the military." 
 
 Otherwise, though, the 60 entries on this year's list, intended to explicate the mind-set of the Beloit class of 2017, follow the five types of Mindset List Entry exactly. To wit: 
 
 "Bill Maher has always been politically incorrect." "'The Celestine Prophecy' has always been bringing forth a new age of spiritual insights"; "Spray paint has never been legally sold in Chicago"; "There has never been a Barings Bank in England." "They have always been able to plug into USB ports"; "With GPS, they have never needed directions to get someplace, just an address." "As kids they may well have seen 'Chicken Run' but probably never got chicken pox." "A tablet is no longer something you take in the morning"; "Java has never been just a cup of coffee." 
 
 Woof! 
 
 Aside from the hackiness of the puns, the thing that jumps out is that the majority of these things governing a student's "mind-set" are actually not that important. Does an incoming college freshman have any idea who Bill Maher is? Has a spray-paint ban in Chicago any connection to, well, anything other than aspiring Illinois graffiti artists? The list's particular obsession with technology signifies both a nostalgia that's deeply uninteresting (these kids with their iPads -- things were so much simpler when we all played "Pong," or better yet, stickball in the street!) and a willingness to make sweeping implications about the degree to which Technology Has Changed Everything that is many things, but is not academic. 
 
 As a recent-ish college graduate whose degree is in American studies, I find the Beloit list a particular irritant. Cultural studies are too easily seen as airy-fairy exercises in aggregating random facts and nebulous trends from recent decades in order to make a point that may or may not be rooted in reality; as these fields have grown more popular, they seem less and less related to the more serious work being done elsewhere in the academy. 
 
 Compare the work of academics earnestly seeking to better understand life in America in the last quarter-century to a linkbait-y list that posits that, because "Barings Bank in England" closed or because computers have USB ports now, students are magically and fundamentally changed. 
 
 To those who believe the list has a higher purpose than getting media attention to Beloit (and, good for them! It's certainly working ...) consider when the list drops. Though Beloit students begin classes on Aug. 26 this year, the list drops neither close to September, when actual news begins peeking out again, nor in May, when those students graduated high school. It's calculated to make a splash. That Beloit's professors have this figured out means that they're far less naive about technology than they let on. ||||| The annual list offers a peek at the worldview of each new college generation. 
 
 The Class of 2017 is part of the sharing generation, according to the Beloit College Mindset List. (Photo: Kevork Djansezian, Getty Images) Story Highlights Original list was released in 1998 
 
 Latest list has a total of 60 items 
 
 Technology helped shape worldview, list authors say 
 
 This year's incoming college freshmen were babies starting to crawl about the same time news bulletins started crawling across the bottom of TV screens. 
 
 That is among tidbits about the worldview of first-year college students highlighted in the new Beloit College Mindset List, out Tuesday from Beloit College in Beloit, Wis. 
 
 The list, which gives a glimpse of the worldview of each new college class, emphasizes that the Class of 2017, most of them born in 1995, have wholly embraced technology. 
 
 Ron Nief and Tom McBride compile the annual lists by looking at magazines, newspapers and television for cultural events, historical moments and social trends. They also get suggestions for items on the list's Facebook page. 
 
 "A third of the list has to do with technology," says Nief, the college's former director of public affairs. For example, the list points out that they the Class of 2017 has never known a time when certain ubiquitous technologies didn't exist: "Having a chat has seldom involved talking," it says. And "with GPS, they have never needed directions to get someplace, just an address." 
 
 The entering freshman class on college campuses grew up with GPS. (Photo: Chris O'Meara, AP) 
 
 McBride, a Beloit professor of English and humanities, says the list reflects a sharing generation. The members of this generation share information about themselves through Facebook and other social media, and they share transportation by carpooling and using public transportation. "They are multicultural -- they have a shared notion of national identity," he adds. "They have non-sectarian views -- they have an ecumenical sense of spirituality." 
 
 Jeffrey Cole, director of USC Annenberg's Center for the Digital Future in Los Angeles, agrees that technology is a central part of the lives of this generation. 
 
 "They are much less interested in voice communication," Cole says. "They believe it is rude to call somebody unannounced. When they do talk by voice, it is usually arranged by texting, IMing or Facebook." 
 
 The list was created in 1998 as a reminder to faculty to be aware of dated references, the college says. Through the years, it became an increasingly popular "cheat sheet" for others about the worldview of each new freshman class. 
 
 McBride says the list sparks conversations between generations on campuses and in homes. 
 
 "It is an icebreaker," he adds. "It's a way of personalizing history." 
 
 Top 5 Items on Mindset List 
 
 1. Eminem and LL Cool J could show up at parents' weekend. (The rappers' daughters were born in 1995. They don't attend Beloit College.) 
 
 2. They are the sharing generation, having shown tendencies to share everything, including possessions, no matter how personal. 
 
 3. GM means food that is genetically modified. 
 
 4. As they started to crawl, so did the news across the bottom of the television screen. 
 
 5. "Dude" has never had a negative tone. 
 
 Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/163Xqsb ||||| This is last year's list, but watch here for the new Beloit College Mindset List for the entering College class of 2018, coming Tuesday, August 26, 2014. 
 
 When the Class of 2017 arrives on campus this fall, these digital natives will already be well-connected to each other. They are more likely to have borrowed money for college than their Boomer parents were, and while their parents foresee four years of school, the students are pretty sure it will be longer than that. Members of this year’s first year class, most of them born in 1995, will search for the academic majors reported to lead to good-paying jobs, and most of them will take a few courses taught at a distant university by a professor they will never meet. 
 
 The use of smart phones in class may indicate they are reading the assignment they should have read last night, or they may be recording every minute of their college experience…or they may be texting the person next to them. If they are admirers of Steve Jobs and Bill Gates, they may wonder whether a college degree is all it’s cracked up to be, even as their dreams are tempered by the reality that tech geniuses come along about as often as Halley’s Comet, which they will not glimpse until they reach what we currently consider “retirement age.” 
 
 Though they have never had the chicken pox, they are glad to have access to health insurance for a few more years. They will study hard, learn a good deal more, teach their professors quite a lot, and realize eventually that they will soon be in power. After all, by the time they hit their thirties, four out of ten voters will be of their generation. Whatever their employers may think of them, politicians will be paying close attention. 
 
 Each August since 1998, Beloit College has released the Beloit College Mindset List, providing a look at the cultural touchstones that shape the lives of students entering college this fall. Prepared by Beloit’s former Public Affairs Director Ron Nief and Keefer Professor of the Humanities Tom McBride, the list was originally created as a reminder to faculty to be aware of dated references. It quickly became an internationally monitored catalog of the changing worldview of each new college generation. Mindset List websites at themindsetlist.com and beloit.edu, as well as the Mediasite webcast and their Facebook page receive more than a million visits annually. 
 
 The Mindset List for the Class of 2017 
 
 For this generation of entering college students, born in 1995, Dean Martin, Mickey Mantle, and Jerry Garcia have always been dead. 
 
 1. Eminem and LL Cool J could show up at parents’ weekend. 
 
 2. They are the sharing generation, having shown tendencies to share everything, including possessions, no matter how personal. 
 
 3. GM means food that is Genetically Modified. 
 
 4. As they started to crawl, so did the news across the bottom of the television screen. 
 
 5. “Dude” has never had a negative tone. 
 
 6. As their parents held them as infants, they may have wondered whether it was the baby or Windows 95 that had them more excited. 
 
 7. As kids they may well have seen Chicken Run but probably never got chicken pox. 
 
 8. Having a chat has seldom involved talking. 
 
 9. Gaga has never been baby talk. 
 
 10. They could always get rid of their outdated toys on eBay. 
 
 11. They have known only two presidents. 
 
 12. Their TV screens keep getting smaller as their parents’ screens grow ever larger. 
 
 13. PayPal has replaced a pen pal as a best friend on line. 
 
 14. Rites of passage have more to do with having their own cell phone and Skype accounts than with getting a driver’s license and car. 
 
 15. The U.S. has always been trying to figure out which side to back in Middle East conflicts. 
 
 16. A tablet is no longer something you take in the morning. 
 
 17. Threatening to shut down the government during Federal budget negotiations has always been an anticipated tactic. 
 
 18. Growing up with the family dog, one of them has worn an electronic collar, while the other has toted an electronic lifeline. 
 
 19. Plasma has never been just a bodily fluid. 
 
 20. The Pentagon and Congress have always been shocked, absolutely shocked, by reports of sexual harassment and assault in the military. 
 
 21. Spray paint has never been legally sold in Chicago. 
 
 22. Captain Janeway has always taken the USS Voyager where no woman or man has ever gone before. 
 
 23. While they've grown up with a World Trade Organization, they have never known an Interstate Commerce Commission. 
 
 24. Courts have always been ordering computer network wiretaps. 
 
 25. Planes have never landed at Stapleton Airport in Denver. 
 
 26. Jurassic Park has always had rides and snack bars, not free-range triceratops and velociraptors. 
 
 27. Thanks to Megan's Law and Amber Alerts, parents have always had community support in keeping children safe. 
 
 28. With GPS, they have never needed directions to get someplace, just an address. 
 
 29. Java has never been just a cup of coffee. 
 
 30. Americans and Russians have always cooperated better in orbit than on earth. 
 
 31. Olympic fever has always erupted every two years. 
 
 32. Their parents have always bemoaned the passing of precocious little Calvin and sarcastic stuffy Hobbes. 
 
 33. In their first 18 years, they have watched the rise and fall of Tiger Woods and Alex Rodriguez. 
 
 34. Yahoo has always been looking over its shoulder for the rise of "Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle.” 
 
 35. Congress has always been burdened by the requirement that they comply with the anti-discrimination and safety laws they passed for everybody else to follow. 
 
 36. The U.S. has always imposed economic sanctions against Iran. 
 
 37. The Celestine Prophecy has always been bringing forth a new age of spiritual insights. 
 
 38. Smokers in California have always been searching for their special areas, which have been harder to find each year. 
 
 39. They aren’t surprised to learn that the position of Top Spook at the CIA is an equal opportunity post. 
 
 40. They have never attended a concert in a smoke-filled arena. 
 
 41. As they slept safely in their cribs, the Oklahoma City bomber and the Unabomber were doing their deadly work. 
 
 42. There has never been a national maximum speed on U.S. highways. 
 
 43. Don Shula has always been a fine steak house. 
 
 44. Their favorite feature films have always been largely, if not totally, computer generated. 
 
 45. They have never really needed to go to their friend’s house so they could study together. 
 
 46. They have never seen the Bruins at Boston Garden, the Trailblazers at Memorial Coliseum, the Supersonics in Key Arena, or the Canucks at the Pacific Coliseum. 
 
 47. Dayton, Ohio, has always been critical to international peace accords. 
 
 48. Kevin Bacon has always maintained six degrees of separation in the cinematic universe. 
 
 49. They may have been introduced to video games with a new Sony PlayStation left in their cribs by their moms. 
 
 50. A Wiki has always been a cooperative web application rather than a shuttle bus in Hawaii. 
 
 51. The Canadian Football League Stallions have always sung Alouette in Montreal after bidding adieu to Baltimore. 
 
 52. They have always been able to plug into USB ports 
 
 53. Olestra has always had consumers worried about side effects. 
 
 54. Washington, D.C., tour buses have never been able to drive in front of the White House. 
 
 55. Being selected by Oprah’s Book Club has always read “success.” 
 
 56. There has never been a Barings Bank in England. 
 
 57. Their parents’ car CD player is soooooo ancient and embarrassing. 
 
 58. New York’s Times Square has always had a splash of the Magic Kingdom in it. 
 
 59. Bill Maher has always been politically incorrect. 
 
 60. They have always known that there are “five hundred, twenty five thousand, six hundred minutes" in a year.
– US News & World Report is ready to shock us all with its Best Colleges 2011 ranking, which places Harvard smack dab on top. Again. But—news alert!—Princeton has tumbled from tying the venerable Crimson to No. 2. That list, which you can see here, doesn't wow us quite so much as does another annual list released today: Beloit College's Mindset List, which gives us a snapshot of the realities and events shaping the lives of this year's freshman class, born in 1992. Some highlights: The majority don't know how to write in cursive. They have never had trouble understanding what a "caramel macchiato" is. Clint Eastwood is some guy who directs movies. Fergie is a member of the Black Eyed Peas, not the British Royal Family. Czechoslovakia has never existed. The Post Office has always been basically broke. Click here for the complete 75-item list (Buffy and Barney and Beanie Babies, oh my!).