The Trending Prof

When I prepare for a new year, I like to look at the Mindset List to see who my new students are.  I quickly realize that there are some pop culture points I can’t say because THEY WON’T KNOW WHAT I AM TALKING ABOUT!!

I have quickly become that person that says “Wow! They are so young!”  Although I am still considered to be a young-ish faculty member, I am considerably removed from their world (I was a frosh in 1998). Here are some of my own additions to the list of what experiences make up the class of 2017.

1. Dance mix 95 was the epic CD purchase…. Macarena anyone?

2. Neon was not cool to wear in the 90’s and that is why those of us who experienced it once are not jumping back into that fashion trend any time soon.

3. Dora the Explorer was your version of great kids TV programming (and Sponge Bob and The Wiggles).  We watched the Originals of Care Bears, Strawberry Shortcake and Transformers.

4. Boy bands used to be cool (New Kids on the Block, NSYNC, Backstreet boys).

5. ICQ was the way to talk to our friends on our brand new desk top computers with Dial Up Internet.

6. Our version of back to school for College/University was buying lots of paper, pens and a clipboard.  We used the “computer labs” on campus to type up our research papers.

7. We used to have to go to the library for ALL of our information, google was not the place for educational searches (pre-Wikipedia, pre-EJournals, pre-EBooks)

8. Bill Nye the Science Guy was actually a show we watched on TV to learn science in grade 8, not on YouTube as Retro kids science show.

9. We saved our files on floppy discs.  Thumb drives hadn’t been invented yet…and when we finally bought our first USB key it cost ($60++) a fortune just to have 8 MB!  Now you get 4 GB USB keys for free as a welcome gift.

10. Having a Sony Walkman (CD player) was a really big deal. You probably had an iPod before your 10th birthday.

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