Some facts about the experiences of students who are entering university this year - the class of 2008 at Harbord Collegiate Institute, generally born in 1990 - according to the Beloit College Mindset List, which is released every August from that school in Wisconsin.
- The students have seldom used land-based phone lines in their adolescence.
- Roommates, few of whom ever shared a room with another person back home, will have already checked out each other's likes, dislikes, social connections, photos and personal thoughts on Facebook.
- Harry Potter could be a classmate, playing on their Quidditch team.
- Since they were in diapers, karaoke machines have been annoying people at parties.
- GPS satellite navigation systems have always been available.
- Coke and Pepsi have always used recycled plastic bottles.
- Gas stations have never fixed flats, but most serve cappuccino.
- Girls in head scarves have always been part of the school fashion scene.
- Martha Stewart has always been dispensing fashion advice.
- Club Med resorts have always been places to take the whole family.
- The Warsaw Pact is as hazy for them as the League of Nations was for their parents.
- IBM has never made typewriters.
- McDonald's and Burger King have always used vegetable oil for cooking French fries.
- The Tonight Show has always been hosted by Jay Leno.
- They may have been given a Nintendo Game Boy to play with in the crib.
- Authorities have always been building a wall along the Mexican border.
- Lenin's name has never been on a major city in Russia.
- Personal privacy has always been threatened.
- Caller ID has always been available on phones.
- They have never known life without Seinfeld and Simpsons references.
- Windows 3.0 operating system made IBM PCs user-friendly the year they were born.
- Muscovites have always been able to buy Big Macs.
- The Hubble Space Telescope has always been eavesdropping on the heavens.
- Kids always had Goosebumps.
