Kids these days, with their Firefox and Chrome … Members of the incoming Class of 2018 probably never used Netscape or got hooked on Saturday morning cartoons, according to an annual list apparently aimed at making you feel old. Beloit College in Wisconsin notes in its yearly Mindset List that most of the kids currently entering college were born in 1996. Among them, the AP notes, is Madonna's daughter Lourdes—yes, she is now a college student. What does their age say about their childhoods? A few highlights from the list:
- Cloning has existed pretty much their whole lives, given that Dolly the Sheep's cloning was announced in 1997 after occurring a year before.
- Bans on same-sex marriage have been overturned since their childhoods.
- Scenes of 9/11 haunted them in kindergarten.
- Joe Camel didn't offer them a cartoonish approach to smoking.
- The WNBA has always been around, and there have always been female refs in the NBA.
- TV shows have always had a parental advisory rating system.
- Wire-rimmed glasses are forever tied to Harry Potter—not John Lennon.
- Remember pressing "pound" on the phone? That's "hashtag" now.
Last year's list is full of similar surprises. (More
Netscape stories.)
,
uBlock 
,
and
Ghostery 
)
