A similar message was sent to TIPS in the spring of this year. Being the
empiricist I am, I had to see how the 1st year students in my class
stacked up. Here's the message I sent to TIPS with the results.
(I should note that one TIPSter corrected my Webster's CD-ROM entry about
the first AIDS cases in the U.S., but I don't have the information saved.)
Jeff
=-=-=
I was a little curious about this, so I polled my class. It only took 5
or 10 minutes in class, and as Spring Break was about to start, they
enjoyed the few minutes of not doing psychology.
A couple of notes: it was the Friday before Spring Break, so attendance
was bad even for a Friday. My sample is probably not representative even
of my own class, then. The students are all from a Kansas State
University retention program for at-risk freshmen.
For whatever it's worth. . .
> They have no meaningful recollection of the Reagan Era and probably did
not
> know he had ever been shot.
Most of them did not have any response to "name one thing for which Reagan
was famous during his presidency." One person knew he was an actor. Two
people listed his love of jellybeans. Taxes, medicare (nothing specific),
and Reaganomics were all mentioned. One person noted
"Reagan's" involvement in Watergate.
However, 54% knew that he had been shot.
> They were prepubescent when the Persian Gulf War was waged.
Their average age in 1991 was 10.58.
> Black Monday 1987 is as significant to them as the Great Depression.
21% of them knew what "Black Monday" was. A couple other answers: when
JFK was shot, a famous MLK speech, electricity went out, the potato
famine, and "people were shot."
> There has been only one Pope.
John Paul II became pope in 1978, and I have one student born as early as
1978.
> They were 11 when the Soviet Union broke apart and do not remember the
Cold
> War.
33.3% of them remembered the Cold War, but only 25% could name the USSR as
the US's primary opponent. (13% thought it was Cuba)
> They have never feared a nuclear war.
33.3% of them reported having been afraid of a nuclear war.
> They are too young to remember the space shuttle blowing up.
Half of them remembered the Challenger explosion.
> Tianamen Square means nothing to them.
Only 12.5% could identify what happened at Tiananmen Square. Some
incorrect answers: the Boston Massacre, the Viet Cong invaded an American
outpost. (Most left it blank.)
> Their lifetime has always included AIDS.
According to my Webster's CD-ROM, AIDS came to the US's West Coast in
1981, and it was named in 1982. 38% were born in 1981, the rest before.
> Bottle caps have always been screw off and plastic.
I was a little confused about this one. There are still metal bottle caps
on beer bottles, and even some of the more expensive root beers and cream
sodas (for our underage students) have metal bottle caps. Granted,
plastic is the norm now (in the US, anyway) for soft drinks, but am I
missing something?
> Atari predates them, as do vinyl albums.
87.5% of them have played an Atari. 71% have played a vinyl album.
> The expression "you sound like a broken record" means nothing to them.
75% of them could explain what this saying meant.
> They have never owned a record player. They have likely never played
Pac Man
> and have never heard of Pong.
2/3 of them have owned a record player. 100% (!) of them have played Pac
Man. Only 25% of them could identify Pong (although another 8% remembered
the Atari version).
> They may have never heard of an 8 track. The Compact Disc was
introduced
> when they were 1 year old.
62.5% of them knew what an 8 track was. The CD was introduced in 1982-3
(according to my Webster's CD-ROM) when they were (on average) 2-3 years
old.
> As far as they know, stamps have always cost about 32 cents.
62.5% of them could name a price of a stamp other than 32 or 33 cents.
> They have always had an answering machine.
79% of them remember when their family didn't have an answering machine.
> Most have never seen a TV set with only 13 channels, nor have they seen
a
> black-and-white TV.
87.5% have seen a TV with 13 channels. 83% have seen a B&W TV.
> They have always had cable.
42% have always had cable. The rest remembered not having it.
> There has always been VCR's, but they have no idea what BETA is.
A third of them could identify a Betamax.
> They cannot fathom not having a remote control.
I know this is mostly rhetorical, but 100% of them knew how people changed
the channel before remotes (either with long sticks or tell the kids to do
it). Honestly, I can hardly fathom being without a remote control,
either.
> They were born the year that Walkmen were introduced by Sony.
The Walkman was actually introduced in 1979. Only two of the 24 students
were born in 1979, one in 1978. The rest were born in 1980 or 1981.
> Roller-skating has always meant inline for them.
96% of them have roller-skated on "skates that weren't inline (not like
Rollerblades)."
> Jay Leno has always been on the Tonight Show.
Carson didn't retire until 1992, though only 46% could name the host of
the Tonight Show before Jay Leno.
> They have no idea when or why Jordache jeans were cool.
WHY were Jordache jeans cool? I'm not sure I could answer that. However,
75% of them thought that Jordache jeans had been cool at some point in
history, and 62.5% of them said it was in the neighborhood of the late
1980s. (One of them thought it was in the late 1970s, one when "my dad
was young.")
> Popcorn has always been cooked in the microwave.
83% have had popcorn cooked at home that wasn't made in the
microwave; most of them made it on the stove, though a few used other
sorts of poppers.
> They have never seen Larry Bird play.
75% of them had seen Bird play. 96% knew he played basketball. 92% knew it
was for the Celtics.
> They never took a swim and thought about Jaws.
Two-thirds of them have thought about Jaws while swimming. 92% have seen
Jaws.
> The Vietnam War is as ancient history to them as WWI, WWII and the Civil
War.
About half of them had some idea when the Vietnam War was fought
(answering in the range of the mid 1960s to the early 1970s), but guesses
ranged from "the 1950s to 1960s" to "1979." However, most of them didn't
answer the question, "Who fought in it?" Of those who did, 6 (25%) said
the US and North and South Vietnam, 3 (!) said the US and Japan. The UK
and Korea were also mentioned.
> They have no idea that Americans were ever held hostage in Iran.
83% answered "True" to the statement, "A group of Americans were held
hostage in Iran for over a year."
> They can't imagine what hard contact lenses are.
58% could explain what hard contacts were.
> They don't know who Mork was or where he was from.
79% knew who Mork was (I counted responses including "from Mork &
Mindy," "a TV character," and "an alien"). Only 8%, though, knew he was
from Ork. (25% more knew he was from somewhere in "outer space." Another
12.5% thought he was from Mars.)
> They never heard: "Where's the beef?", "I'd walk a mile for a
> Camel," or "de plane, de plane!"
75% have heard "Where's the beef?", but most of them thought it was some
sort of beef promotion (we are in Kansas, after all). One student
correctly identified it as being a Wendy's commercial (two thought it was
Burger King), and three more knew it was a commercial but couldn't
identify for whom. According to one student who had heard it, "it's what
my dad says before dinner."
37.5% had heard "I'd walk a mile for a Camel." 25% knew it was a
cigarette slogan.
Only 29% had heard "de plane, de plane!" Most of them couldn't identify
it. As many (8%) thought it was from the Love Boat as from Fantasy
Island.
> They do not care who shot J.R. and have no idea who J.R. is.
Only one student (4%) cared who shot J.R., but 25% could at least identify
him as a character on Dallas.
> The Titanic was found? They thought we always knew where it was.
Only 8% thought we knew exactly where Titanic sank at the time that it
sank.
> Michael Jackson has always been white.
8% answered "yes" to the question, "Has Michael Jackson ever altered his
skin color?"
> Kansas, Chicago, Boston, America, and Alabama are places, not groups.
I asked them if any of the following were music groups. The percentage
who said yes for
Kansas: 54
Chicago: 66.6
Boston: 58
America: 16.6
Alabama: 83.3
> McDonald's never came in Styrofoam containers.
83.3% said that McDonald's has used Styrofoam containers. I asked them
how they knew, and 25% said they remembered it. 37.5% said McDonald's
still uses Styrofoam for breakfasts and for coffee cups.
> There has always been MTV.
That depends on what you mean. Given that over half of them remember not
having cable, you could argue that they remember a time before MTV. If
you just look at whether MTV has existed their whole lifetime, though, MTV
launched in 1981 when my class was, on average, 1 year old.
> They don't have a clue how to use a typewriter.
96% of them have used a typewriter before. 58% of them have used an
electric typewriter (i.e., they answered "yes" to "Did you have to plug it
in?"), suggesting that the remaining students used a manual (or someone
else plugged it in :).
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Jeff Bartel
http://www-personal.ksu.edu/~jbartel
Department of Psychology, Kansas State University
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Reading an email message about a new email virus? Getting a note that's
been forwarded to a dozen other people? Before you pass it along, drop by
http://www.US.datafellows.com/news/hoax/ for a list of recent hoaxes and
chain letters.
