Walton, Arain: Beloit List

Faculty born before 1980 and students born around 1993 are very different in their mindsets and ideas about technology and life in general. Social networking is a big deal for the students of 1993. They use Twitter, Myspace, and Facebook to start and end relationships. Nothing’s face-to-face anymore in the eyes of the professors. Professors faced books not used Facebook. Students want an instant reply to e-mails and messages, while faculty take as long as they want to respond to a message labeled “urgent!” Teachers are also finding that they see less and less of students because of online classes. Their languages are different too, many expressions have different meanings for both groups. For instance, one of the newest game systems is called a “Wii”, to a college professor that expression was used when going down a slide or swinging on the playground. Another example is the phrase, “Don’t touch that dial!” Students are still trying to figure out what dial because they have cell phones and computers. Life itself has changed. Students now face different crises than teachers did. While growing up students’ parents worried about mosquitoes or birds giving them a disease, while faculty members would just ignore a mosquito and keep going when they were growing up. Students are spoiled, they are used to bottled water and soda; half the time they don’t even make their own coffee but go to Starbucks! Professors don’t have the same social life as students. Students are less affected by the things they see on TV. For as long as they remember girls have been kissing each other and movie stars are all the craze. While students care about the latest thing on TV professors are more worried about whether their students’ homework is done.  Students and professors have grown up seeing and living to different ways.