Today’s college generation is leading the nation into a world without borders.

John Zogby, internationally noted pollster, told students they are the first of their kind in a speech Monday evening at Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art.

“You are America’s first global citizens,” he said.

Today’s generation is not apathetic like some believe, Zogby said. He said he feels optimistic toward what he called the generation of the “first globals.”

Members of a generations are determined by two age cohorts: where they are in their life cycle and what historic event dominates their lives, he said. Events for past generations have been Pearl Harbor and the Cold War.

Today it is the speed of technology.

“You are growing up in an age of globalization, which defines you more than anyone else,” Zogby said.

The generation of the “first globals,” ages 18-29, have more ready access to information, which leads to a world of network opportunities.

“When we ask who are your friends ... friends used to be immediate and personal ... friends today are your network,” Zogby said. “‘I have a friend in Thailand,’ I’ll hear. You are global in every way, shape and form.”

But not all members of the “first globals” have the same perception of theirs and other countries.

Zogby said because some countries are rising again, members of the “first globals” generation in the United States are more likely to be “citizens of the Earth.”

“A global citizen in China or Russia is decidedly different from a global citizen here, because nationalism and ultra-nationalism and the appeal to national greatness in this new world is something very much on the minds of people in China and Russia,” he said. “They are apt in emerging or re-emerging as global powers [and they] are making young people, at the same time, more global and more national than here at the states.”

Zogby used polls that show baby-boomers couldn’t locate Vietnam on a map as an example of the “first globals’” knowledge of the world around them.

“They may not know where Darfur is on a map, but what makes these 20-somethings so different today than previous cohorts of 20-somethings is that they know there is a Darfur on the map,” he said.

Another difference between this generation and prior generations is how it assesses cultural issues.

“One of the things that I’m proudest of the first globals is the position on things like abortion,” Zogby said. “First globals tilt pro-choice but by and large what they tell us in a poll is ‘Give me the situation and let’s evaluate the situation and I will tell you whether it is legitimate.’ Why didn’t we think of that?”

Many students approached Zogby to thank him for refuting the preconceived notions of their generation, he said.

“I think that the hope he gave our generation is appealing,” said Chris Shilling, psychology senior.

OU President David Boren said he, like Zogby, is optimistic about the future of this generation of students.

“I think it is fascinating to look at the attitudes of this generation, and to think about how they are likely to change America and make America what it will be 20 years from now,” Boren said. “I hope to be around to see that.”

Zogby said he appreciates the diversity, fearlessness and level of intelligence he sees in the students who attend his lectures nationwide.

“Universities really have become places where a lot people think, and I am appreciating that more and more,” he said. “I think just the very fact that it is different for people to be with people of different cultures, and to be in a world of ideals to have so much to worry about with the world at large, compared to the previous generation that went to college [who] were clueless.”