<p>"For students entering college this fall, e-mail is too slow, phones have never had cords and the computers they played with as kids are now in museums."</p>
<p>My</a> Way News - Wear wristwatch? Use e-mail? Not for Class of '14</p>
<p>That article really made me feel old. (I’m turning 28 this week.)</p>
<p>It makes me feel old, too. I’m eighteen, I write only in cursive (in fact, that was the topic of one of my essays), and I wear a wristwatch on a daily basis. We didn’t get “five hundred cable channels” until I was ten. Generally, I don’t want a smart phone. “Fergie” meant Sarah, Duchess of York to me until 2007, when I head about the singer. The former duchess is still my default reaction when I hear that name. </p>
<p>If this makes me weird, I daresay I’m fine with that.</p>
<p>FutureActuary, I’m not too far behind you in age and this article makes me feel old!</p>
<p>That cursive thing is new to me. I’m 16 and I remeber in the 5th grade that we were forced to write in cursive. My handwriting is a combo of both print and cursive.</p>
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LIES!!! I feel naked without my watch, I always write in cursive, and I’ve seen a million more movie with Eastwood than directed by him.</p>
<p>Phanatic - don’t take it too seriously. It’s just a couple people at a school in Wisconsin. Their PoV is obviously not going to include every 18 year old in the country. A lot of it seems pretty overblown, too, ignoring the fact that we, the class of 2014, actually were cognitive during the 1990s, or that some of us have parents who kept them in line with older pieces of culture…like Clint Eastwood movies. I watched them on Betamax!</p>
<p>Everyone in my classes was taught cursive in the third grade. I now write in a mix of print and cursive, but surely other schools were similar? Also, seriously? Telephones without cords? They were around in the 1990s! Where were these kids that they’ve never used them? xD We still have a few around in case the power goes out, because our cell signal is terrible.</p>
<p>Some of the items are obviously going to be true for any of the class of around 2013 and onward - Dr. Kevorkian not having a license, Czechoslovakia, etc…but some of them are kind of unfair cultural assumptions. For instance, I’m currently shooting film and I’ll be damned if I can’t get a roll of Kodachrome to run on a slide projector before it totally disappears. And, honestly, most everyone knows that pointing to the wrist means “What time is it?” If people are truly that weird and have never worn a wristwatch, it’s still the point of many jokes. And Beethoven always being a dog? Not knowing Fergie as The Duchess of York? Give us some credit!</p>
<p>Makes me feel old, and I’m only 21.</p>
<p>I wear wrist watches and can write cursive. I do not use a smart phone cause I don’t want to be expected to be connected all the time and corded phones still sound much better than wireless phones.</p>
<p>I get tired of being underestimated. That said, I definitely cannot write in cursive. I can’t imagine how anyone possibly thinks its faster… I guess if you print like a grandma!</p>
<p>On a lighter note, I always wear a watch. Recently my watch band broke and I was reduced to using my cell phone to tell time. It was annoying, and it was digital. Ugh.</p>
<p>These kids were in diapers when corded phones were widely in use still. I remember getting cordless phones in the late 90s.</p>
<p>Go figure…I am in my 50’s…use a smart phone to tell time, and print rather than cursive…however…Love Dirty Harry and the Good,the Bad and the Ugly…;)</p>
<p>As a '14er, I’m disappointed. I use cursive exclusively in my handwriting, do not own a smartphone, did not have more than three television channels until I turned 11, and wear a wristwatch daily.</p>
<p>Without the last item, I don’t feel dressed.</p>
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<p>:D I just learned that he was a dog, actually - prior to your statement, I had no idea.</p>
<p>@Perididdle: Oh, I don’t take it too seriously, though it does make me proud to not fall into the “typical class of 2014” profile. Like you, and contrary to what Beloit seems to believe, I was also alert in the 1990s and remember a lot of things that Beloit believes I should not. </p>
<p>Having a father who was born during the Truman administration and a mother born during the Eisenhower administration certainly makes me a bit different. I don’t know many other kids who rushed downstairs on Saturday mornings to watch “Hogan’s Heroes.” </p>
<p>Yay for not being in the mindset! :D</p>
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<p>Whoa! </p>
<p>Yeah, that does change things. </p>
<p>Though my parents were not born here, their birth dates fall under the Eisenhower era.</p>
<p>I thought with cursive it was mandatory to learn it around the 3rd grade. I guess most people just don’t remember how to use because we only use it in elementary school and then teachers don’t care which one you use. I think more people just write in print because it’s more convenient…not because of time. </p>
<p>And I’m only 16 and I have a cord phone in my house right now and I remember having one when I was around 9 years old. Of course we also have wireless phones but we use both…</p>
<p>Yeah, they ran an article about this in my local newspaper and I wasn’t too thrilled about it. I wear a wristwatch religiously, remember using phones with cords, learned cursive in 2nd grade (it’s just inconvenient) and my folks have yet to upgrade to HDTV with a million channels.</p>
<p>Yep… .exact article in my local newspaper as well.
Class of 2014 here, I wear a watch, write religiously in cursive, just switched to cordless phones (which I hate! We always lose them, even more than cell phones!), my cell phone is a flip phone, and believe it or not, I actually go outside and have fun when the sun is out.</p>
<p>Just an old mom piping up…
I never learned cursive properly because I was sick for two weeks (measles - the doctor CAME TO OUR HOUSE) when it was started and I never got into it. My husband moved from a school district when it was taught in 3rd when he had just finished 2nd to a district where it was taught in 2nd as he started 3rd. Both of us have our own unique writing.
What I find different about my child’s generation is that you all learned to type at an early age. I and my husband learned in high school - and you had to break out of the college course curriculum and go over and join the kids learning job skills to learn typing.
My child wears a wristwatch.</p>
<p>And arghh…it wasn’t RUSSIAN strikes on the US - it was the SOVIET UNION (aka USSR)</p>