My biggest shock in the matter of speed of change came – I think – the year before last. During a lecture I referred to “search engines”. The look of puzzlement on their faces spread to mine. Then it dawned on me: they didn’t know what a search engine was. I smiled and said “google it” but tried towards the end to refer back to my earlier quaint reference.

A good example is gaming. I remember playing the same 8-bit games as a kid that our current students are downloading onto phones. I’ve seen a few students around campus with old, chunky Gameboys playing Tetris. So there seems to be a certain amount of kudos in relation to possessing older technology! I’ve seen BigTrak around the campus – a programmable ‘truck’ I remember in the 80s as being THE toy to have. I’ve also started seeing Tamagotchi’s again and chunky digitial watches with basic red LED displays.

I’ve heard many students referring to MacGyver, the Transformers cartoons, the A-team, Saved by the Bell, Thundercats, etc and they have obviously downloaded episodes of the series on uTorrent. The animated series Futurama has Nixon as president of the world in the year 3000 (his head is kept alive in a jar) and I’ve seen students searching for Watergate to understand the references! A lot of the dance music they listen to has very obvious 80s electro-pop synth elements and certainly groups like Duran Duran, Journey, or artists like Bonnie Tyler and Tom Jones are still popular (probably partly because of Glee covers).

There is a real 80s retro culture still pervading our university students. So, we can still relate to the students if we pick our references carefully! ‘It’s like that episode of the Simpsons when …’ still works …

Of course, references to “The Towering Inferno” in the context lectures regarding the pitfalls of cost-cutting in high rise construction should always be embraced!

25. They have lived in an era of instant stardom and self-proclaimed celebrities, famous for being famous
(for the centrality of celebrity culture)

40. A bit of the late Gene Roddenberry, creator of Star Trek, has always existed in space
(I thought this was poetic, but then being a Trekkie I’m biased)

60. History has always had its own channel.
(so nicely put!)

68. They watch television everywhere but on a television
(the pervasiveness of screens & evolution of old media)

It felt cool to know about the Daily Show (no. 5) on the other hand
age hit back when I read no. 20.- ‘Exposed bra straps have always been a fashion statement, not a wardrobe malfunction to be corrected quietly by well-meaning friend!’
The latter always make me cringe