5 Things College Freshmen Will Never Have to Do

This past week, I was going through college brochures with my daughter and it got me thinking about my college experience and how different hers would be. It was a shock to me when I realized that most of the students entering college this year were born in 1991 or 1992. The time when the war in Iraq was ending in an apparent success, when the Berlin wall came down and the U.S.S.R collapsed. Computers were just starting to become commonplace, although not widely used. We still typed our essays with a typewriter and white out was a staple of every student's school supplies. But times have changed and there are many things that were such a part of my life that most of our children will never experience.

Here are 5 things that new college students will never deal with:

1. No Internet, or Dial up Internet access- Remember that screechy dial up sound? Or worse, the busy signals and constant redials? Yeah, our children will never be able to understand, even if you explained it. With the world being so connected, college students send papers via email to their professors, and some students even take their classes online. Finding a college used to mean getting information packets, visiting the school to submit the application and the visiting again for an admissions interview. Now, all of that can be done with just a few clicks of the mouse.
   
   
2. Checking email frequently- For the younger generation, the idea of checking your email constantly is foreign. Email is used primarily for business communications and work. Keeping in touch with friends and family is much easier to do with social networking. The information can be delivered to their mobile phones and responded to right away.
   
   
3. Developing film- Last week, my daughter was trying to tell me that she wanted to get actual prints made of some photos she took at a concert. She said “I need to stop somewhere and get my pictures printed.” I asked if she meant that she needed to get some photos developed, and I all I got in reply was a confused look. I realized that I had my terminology all wrong.
   
   
4. Carrying cash or writing checks- When I was in college, almost every week I would have to go to the bank or the ATM at the bank to get cash for the week. Finding an ATM machine in places other than at the bank was rare. Now, when you have a debit card, there really isn't much need to carry around a lot of cash. In fact, most places even let you use a debit card at the laundromat, so the rolls of quarters each week aren't necessary either.
   
   
5. Using an actual map- My grandfather recently had asked my older sister to take him to his doctor. He actually went to AAA to get a map for her, so that she would know how to get there. Of course, she has GPS in her car and she has Google maps (not to mention that she was familiar with the place he needed to go) even for her, the idea of getting a fold up map seemed foreign and unnecessary.

Bonus:

Wearing a watch- Watches have become much more of a fashion accessory than a practical way to keep track of time. Unless you are Flava Flav, there is no need to have several reliable watches. Most everyone keeps a cell phone handy so knowing what time it is isn't so much of a problem.

Can you think of other things? Let me know in the comments.

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By Melissa Kennedy- Melissa is a 9 year blog veteran and a freelance writer, along with helping others find the job of their dreams, she enjoys computer geekery, raising a teenager, supporting her local library, writing about herself in the third person and working on her next novel.