Zen Z

I know someone said more or less the same thing when it was posted on Tumblr, but if the schools realize most of their students don't know a thing they should know... Shouldn't they teach it?

its not in their standardized tests and that's the only thing that determines funding. Its a nightmare ...
- Apparently it’s literally in the standardised tests… that’s what’s causing the problems! 😉
Yes.

But they don't need to know it. So they stopped teaching it.
Honestly, how often do you read analog clocks?

I mean, I learned it as a child, but it's been probably months since I actually had the need to read an analog clock, and I'm just not used to it anymore. I have to think about it, 20 years ago it was just my spine doing the thinking and it felt effortless.
- Every day?
- A lot, since I have an analog wristwatch and a wall clock. There were also analog clocks in several of the exam rooms where I last had exams.
  
  I guess many people don't use them regularly, but regardless, the simple fact that they still exist is enough to be worth learning about them. Not everything you learn at school is meant to be used every single day.
- Every day? I use an analog watch face on my smartwatch, I have an analog clock in my car, I have another couple at home….
- It's not just about telling time though. It's about representing things in a different way. Correlating one thing to another, and making someone think until the representation automatically becomes the output. You are forced to see things in a different way, which is what learnding is all about.
- I actually agree with you. I can read an analog clock, but what worth is the skill? Most clocks are digital, and it gives me nothing more to read an analog one. People downvoting you is just silly. Some skills are allowed to die out if they add no value in modern life.
- Daily. There’s one in my kitchen and one at my office.
That is a good point, but analog clocks are IMHO in the realm of sundial clocks or audio casettes or floppy discs. Technology that was once usefull, but now it's replaced by better alternatives. Time is after all just a number, and it does not matter how we choose to represent it.
- Digital isn't better it's just different. Also a tonne of wristwatches are still analogue.
- Knowing a clock is more than just telling time.
  
  When you're walking with your homies you gotta be able to call out "gyat 3 o'clock" , so your fellow bros know where to look.
- As someone who struggled with analog clocks into my twenties, being able to see the hands move gives me a better sense of time passing and I remember reading stuff that supported that. I have a better sense how much time I have left for something looking at analog vs digital basically and it's a fairly common experience apparently
- Absolutely not comparable to floppy disks. The hands are a representation, not a technology. Technology-wise, most modern "analog" wristwatches are quartz, and therefore digital, not actually analog. Yet we choose to make them with hands because that provides a better representation of the passing of time.
- Are they going anywhere, tho? They start cheap and are very energy-efficient, so I think they'd stay. If there is a probability to face them IRL it won't be bad to learn how to read them.
- I need reading glass (sigh I got old) With an analogue watch face I can work out the time, blurred lines can be seen. Cant read blurred numbers.
- It's not better, it's just different, your comparison is flawed.
  Personally, I prefer analog watches for most cases, because it's much easier for me to do calculations visually. To add 6 to 7/19 on a digital clock I need to turn on my math brain (19+6=25, 25>24 => 25-24=1), but on an analog watch I can just visually read the number opposite of 7.
  
  And that's just one example, there are other cases, besides just being easier to read at a glance. I've used both digital and analog watches since birth, but analog watches are marginally better for daily use, where to the second precision isn't necessary.
- Time isn't just a number though. Especially not when it comes to clocks. And it's also bound to Mass.
- 100% it is antiquated technology.

I know, it's just a meme, but... The article. It's about clocks during exams specifically, when students are under pressure and more likely to misread the time on an analogue clock.

Thanks for expounding upon that. It's shit like this that gets spread around and older gens pat themselves on the back while shaking their head at the younger gen for not knowing something, despite it being taken out of context or even straight up false.
- To be honest, even if it were completely true... okay? If analogue clocks are on the way out then there's no particular need for anyone to be able to read them any more. I like them a lot visually and have a couple in my home, but there's nothing so special about them that people would be missing out by using digital clocks instead
- You're right, but the article still has a shitty, clickbait-y headline.
Kids cant ask the teacher for the time?

At my school, because the clock was always between 2 and 10 minutes wrong, the students(mostly me) would just raise their hands and ask how much time they have left
- they could ask the teacher, sure, but why not fix the problem instead of using a disruptive workaround until the end of time? phrased another way, should we as a society fix problems or provide half solutions that don't fully resolve them?
IMO all the more reason to keep them. In the real world we all have to perform under pressure. With practice they can learn to read the clock under pressure, maybe take a breath or two and slow down before trying to read it. It may be a simple hurdle to overcome but practicing overcoming these things is important for development.
- You're right it's good to prepare young people for challenges. Still, that should mean challenges that would come up anyways, not artificially making things more difficult.
  
  It's good to know how to read an analog clock, just like it's good to be able to read cursive. But both of them are outdated and aren't inherently required in day to day life. Inserting them into a testing situation that's meant to test something else is creating an unnecessary challenge.
- You on the other perform excellent in being abrasive, despite social pressure not to be an asshole.
  
  10/10 no notes.

If only there was a building children could attend where they do things like teach how clocks work

Seriously! I'm pretty sure that was part of 1st or 2nd grade. Maybe both....
- The problem is unless you really use the skill a lot you're not really gonna learn it from school. I had to teach myself how to read analog clocks in highschool cause even though I'm pretty sure I learned it in elementary school I grew up with computers and eventually smart phones so I never had to use it.
  
  Edit: Also for context I was born in 2001
- In my elementary school we even had clocks, where the numbers were large dice the teacher could take out and rotate so they showed ½, 30 or 18 instead of 6, for example. It’s not hard to learn, if you’re at a school. But then again, digital clocks are so everpresent that it might not actually matter…
Gather round, children, time to learn how to use a dial up modem, and after that we'll go over Morse code.
- Did you not learn morse code in school...? I'm rather young and that was taught in one of my classes I'm fairly certain. Even if it was mainly for fun, and only really remembered how to do SoS
We learned analogue clocks in children's TV also

Sounds like divisive bullshit.

After all the millennial horseshit we had to hear in the 2010's and we're just gonna turn around and do the same shit, huh?

Yup, hating on the next generation is a tale as old as time. Idk why, but every generation seems to do it. Maybe it's being uncomfortable with them being different or afraid of their youthfulness. I don't get it.
I'm not gonna do that, fuck that. I do hope this much screen time is ok for kids, even as a young programmer I didn't have an iPad everywhere. Nobody seems concerned about their privacy, but guess what: neither did my millennial peers.

I think everything will be ok with alpha and Z. Let's not repeat our the mistakes of our parents.
- I think it's important to not give certain things the benefit of the doubt. This clock stuff is just plain stupid to get bent out of shape about, but the other two are serious concerns.
  
  This is just anecdotal, but I was a late 90's kid that had as much screen time as I wanted growing up. I played an absurd amount of videogames, and had to be dragged outside by my siblings or I could comfortably stay indoors in front of a game or the internet for hours on end. I spent most of my early years (age 3 to age 15) in front of a screen. Yet, I did just fine in school, got a degree, and now work as a software engineer. I fell in love with my highschool sweetheart, and after waiting until I had my degree, we got married at 23, almost 10 years after we started dating. It felt like my obsessive amounts of screen time as a kid didn't have any negative side effects to my life as a whole (outside of being a quiet and reserved person, and some could argue that that's not a negative) and led me down a successful career path.
  
  However, I don't think kids these days have the luxury of doing that anymore. The content put in front of me as a kid was games made by teams that were passionate about the thing they were working on. Forums and early YouTube videos were created by some no name person with the hope of sharing something they openly cared about. Social Media didn't exist yet and once it did, I never really got into it.
  
  The content put in front of children these days is one of three or so things:
  
  Mindless dribble. (looking at you, Youtube Kids)
  
  Rushed, broken games made barely finished enough to get people to buy them just to make a quick buck, and the ones that are finished are so heavily tied into marketing it's like the game is basically one big ad. (looking at you, Fortnite and Rocket League)
  
  Content made with the express purpose to either gain influencer status, or to use that influencer status to market something, primarily to children who are especially vulnerable to the scummy marketing practices they are using.
  
  Obviously there are exceptions to these everywhere, but I'm talking about the things that are actively being shoved down kids' throats. It's not that I think that the content I consumed was better than what I see kids consuming now, but I think that the motivations behind the content can just as easily influence children as much as the content itself. I think that in a lot of ways, this kind of content is actively degrading kids' brains, and from my experience, it's not the screen time, it's what's being shown on screen that's the issue.
  
  Thankfully I'm tech savvy enough that I can make the internet for my children what it was for me as a kid, without all the marketing and money making schemes that pass as content these days, but a lot of people just toss a tablet in front of their kids and call it parenting.
  
  I was going to rant about privacy as well, but this is getting way too long. Just know that I think digital privacy is really important, and think that we've paid the price for not considering it earlier, and there are ways we can save our kids from the same fate.
  
  Sorry, I tend to write way too much on topics I care about, thanks for coming to my TED Talk.
  
  tl;dr - The clock thing is stupid, but please approach the constant exposure to the modern day internet and the digital privacy topics with a bit more scrutiny.
"Gen-z is killing the analog clock industry" news articles incoming
It's not really bullshit if it's actually a thing though. A lot of kids 15 and under not only can't but actively refuse to even try. The failure is in the adults who are letting them be in charge like that.

Alternate title: Students cannot tell the time because schools are removing analog clocks from the classroom

The only reason you need to know analog clocks nowadays is to solve all the analog clock puzzles in video games.

Or if you have a clock?
- The only reason you need to own analog clocks nowadays is to practice solving all the analog clock puzzles in video games.

Kids can't even read a sundial nowadays, smh

Amazing comment 🤣

My first thought was to be appalled at the lack of education on display.... But is there any real reason to keep analog clocks.. other than habit and nostalgia?

Other than the things already mentioned, you can read analog clocks easily from great distances, as long as the handles and the face have appropriate contrast (e.g. black on white). Even with impaired vision and large distance, being able to discern the rough position of black smudges on white background is enough to tell the time. This is not possible with a digital clock, because you can't distinguish between the digits as easily. Therefore, I'd certainly argue their much better for legibility in the back of a classroom or a lecture hall.
- Or on big-ass clock towers that are supposed to be visible from a large part of the surrounding area.
Well you can use the clock for giving headings. "that tree at 10". Then you have historical and ornamental clocks which might be nice to read. Like you can not design a digital clock to look as good as an analog one.

But yeah. Probably not many reasons really
Accessibility.

We will never get rid of the analogue clocks from our school, we're an adult education and alternative model highschool qualifications centre.

We primarily teach adults with no to low English, adults and teens with disabilities, and adults and teens refered via corrections services.

There is a significant level of illiteracy within numeracy, and for some of our students, it's not a failing of the education system, it's just a fact of life given their specific circumstances (eg, acquired brain injuries are common among our students)

Some students can learn to tell time on an analogue clock even if they didn't know before.

But even my students who will never in their life be able to fully and independently remember and recall their numbers can tell the time with an analogue clock.

I tell my students "we will take lunch at 12pm, so if you look at the clock and the arms look like this /imitates a clock/ we will go to lunch"

And now I avoid 40 questions of "when's lunch?" because you don't need to tell time to see time with an analogue clock, they can physically watch the hands move, getting closer to the shape they recognise as lunch time.

And my other students can just read the time, from the clock, and not feel infantalised by having a disability friendly task clock like they've done at other centres I work at - they've had a digital clock for students who can tell time, and a task clock as the accessible clock. But a well designed face on an analogue clock can do both.

I myself have time blindness due to a neurological/CRD issue, so analogue clocks, and analogue timers are an accessibility tool for me as well, as the teacher.
There are actually people who really benefit from analog clocks. Analog clocks are very visual and make it possible to ‘envision’ a block of time passing or approaching.

For example, for certain people with autism or ADHD, an analog clock with color coded segments can be helpful for planning things at certain times. I.e ‘breakfast is the green block’, ‘dinner time is the orange block’, ‘bedtime is the red block’. That’s a much more ‘physical’ way of telling time than an abstract ‘20.30’ of a digital clock.

Analog clocks aren’t worse or outdated. They’re a different way to achieve the same thing. Just because you can type on a keyboard, you’ll still want to be able to write with a pen, right? Same idea. It’s still a valuable basic skill to have.
- This is a very good point, thank you for sharing.
  
  Just wanted to say I hate writing by hand. I'm terribly untidy and slow with a pen.
My first thought was "yes", my second thought was "actually, maybe not?" and my third thought was reading the word clockwise in another comment which would need to be replaced with another word to indicate direction around an axis and its opposite
This might be just me but I feel like they help me think about time more clearly, and manage my time better. Maybe I'm a visual learner.
Clocks were invented before electricity. If an EMP took out all the electronics, a mechanical clock is still the best way to measure longitude at sea
- If an emp took out all the electronics, the need to measure longitude at sea would not make my top ten concerns.
- While true, most clocks are quarts oscillators These days so would die also. That said, love me a mechanical clock and have a skeleton watch I daily drive.
You can certainly make an argument for young kids, i.e. teaching fractions and literally how to count (counting seconds).

Teenagers? No, not really. They'll all have phones or something to tell the time by a certain age and hopefully they know their fractions / how to count. It might as well just be digital at that point.
The swiss will never get rid of their iconic railway clocks
It's a cheap and easy way to teach children to visualize.
It's faster to read. I just need to look at an analogue clock to know the time but I have to read a digital one. That's the same reason why even modern planes and cars still have the round things with sticks, sorry I don't know what they're called in English, because it's easier to comprehend than numbers.

There's probably someplace kids could go to learn about analog clocks...

A flavorflav concert?

This has got to be rage bait like the litterbox thing right?

Yup. Of course it is and half of the comment section is falling for it.
Litter box thing? I thought it was just my half wit town who believed in that bullshit.
- My mother in law informed me that the left wants kids to have access to litter boxes and all kinds of stuff. She swears her friend said it's true. I told her to her face that she's been duped but you know she's a bit too far and drank the juice.

No one knows how to read a sextant any more. The horror!!

Analog clocks are not really essential technology.

Ok but there are still many places with analog clocks, learning how they work shouldn't take more than 5 minutes.
- I feel like this says more about these students' schools, rather than the students themselves.

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Feels more like we should teach kids better rather than remove the clocks.

Perhaps we should start paying teachers so that we attract more intelligent ones with more passion
Feels like we have a limited amount of time to teach kids and we have more important things to teach them during that time

Edit:
It'd be nice if all the fuckin edgelords downvoting had the courage to say what they'd like to remove from the curriculum to make room for fuckin analog clock lessons.
- I am pretty sure this was being taught for maybe 1 day in 1st grade after you learn about numbers. For first grader learning analogue clock probably is also a fun activity.

I've worked in 2 different schools in the IT department and 4 others as a volunteer lecturer (I got a name tag that said Technology Evangelist) I found that putting an analog clock on the screen saver of computers in the classroom was more likely to result in the clock actually being on time.

Too many clocks in classrooms are very old or even battery powered but neglected.

I don't think kids are dumb just they aren't getting a world that is properly maintained by competent people that care about their work and are adequately resourced to do the whole job.

During my final exams that lasted from may to July they didn’t even bother to set the analog clock to the right hour…

Even for our baccalaureate
Well, in Germany... depending on the school and people, we cared a lot for those clocks and maintained them well

I heard they’re gonna remove schools because kids show up to them not knowing anything.

Florida is getting rid of all the books at least.

Always feels like these articles (and headlines in particular) are made to stir up division on social media.

Shouldnt we blame the teachers for fsiling to teach kids how to read the clock?

Or the schools for removing the clocks, thus preventing anyone from practicing.
Brain rot is only a moral failing of the children. What more can the teachers and parents do?!

I don't believe this for a second. You can literally just look at it and intuitively understand. Not to mention part of the standard elementary school curriculum is how to read a clock.

Wait...you think those are intuitive? Fuck no.

Who's going to intuitively know that "long hand pointing at 2" means "10 minutes after the hour"? Also, having the long hand for minutes is super unintuitive when hours are longer than minutes.
- May not be super intuitive, but getting rid of them is intellectually lazy. If you know an hour is 60 minutes, it makes enough sense.
  
  If an hour is 60 minutes, 60/12 is 5 minutes per number on the clock. Long hand is minutes because there are more minutes in a day than hours. Or at least that's how I can rationalize it.
  
  If you can explain an analog clock that quickly, it's just lazy for them to not learn it. It also has cross application to make people more comfortable with mental math and multiples commonly seen in trigonometry.
- Minutes are the smaller time division with 60 possible values so that hand is longer to reach to the tick marks for easier reading of the exact minute.
  
  The hour hand only needs to distinguish between 12 possible values that are more spread out around the perimeter, so it doesn't need to reach very far to tell which hour out of 12 it is.
Real reason is probably that the schools don't have the budget to pay for the batteries, or for someone to make sure the time is correct on all of them in the school...
- My high school all the analog clocks attached to a big box that had the intercom in it. The clocks were all synchronized remotely through that system school wide. So no need for batteries. We did have digital clocks at the ends of most hallways. I’d imagine because they’re just physically smaller and less ambiguity for when 1 minute matters before a bell in between classes.

Analog clocks are kind of annoying tbh. Sometimes you need that little extra energy you have to spend on wondering whether it is 11:37 or 11:38 already by carefully visually bisecting the circle section between 7 and 8.
Millimetres of white space keep you wondering about the nature of analogue vs digital, discrete vs continuous and measurement uncertainty while you have better things to do but cannot just give up on OCDing whether it is exactly 11:37:30 already or maybe it is 11:37:35? And boom in these seconds you were wondering it is already pointless because it is the past and now it is time to wonder if it is 11:38:15 or 11:38:30

Whereas for digital it is just:
oh it is 11:11 on 11.11.11, how cool, life’s good

Thus it is my opinion that analogue clocks are virgins whereas digital are chads

I love having an analog clock. It makes it feel like you have more time compared to a digital clock, making me more relaxed. For example, if the time is 12:34 PM, my subconscious will think, "Ahh, shit, 26 more minutes before 1 PM." But with an analog clock, I read it as around half an hour before 1 PM. The visual representation also helps, like seeing that there is a distance that the hands need to travel to reach a certain time.

All in all, I very much prefer having analog clocks vs digital when given the chance.
I read both kinds of clocks differently and have to sit and process to translate between them. A digital clock I read as "six twenty-five AM." An analog clock I read as "almost half-past six." I usually don't bother reading an analog clock at greater resolutions than a quarter hour.
- No.
seconds hand: am I a joke to you?
- Most clocks have only two hands. Actually all school clocks I seen had only two
The specific time isn't as important as how long it is until things are going down. You know the part of the clock the minute hand will be pointing at when it's time to do shit then you got a handy little progress arc to check in on and instantly know when it's time to do the things.
- So you say that your bowel movements are synchronised with your clock?
I don't think this precision is necessary. We have an analog clock in our living room, and I often quickly glance at it to get a feeling for time. I don't care if it is 11:35 or 11:36, I just think "Oh, it's half past eleven". At a train station, when seconds count, analog clocks are a dumb idea. However, then I also have my (digital) watch.

Recommend we call Clockwise "cap" and Counterclockwise "no cap"

That works for "righty tighty, lefty loosey" as well

Sounds like a fake article

If only they still taught how to read a sundial, but those damn new fangled analog clocks...

Kids these days do absolutely still know how to read analog clocks.

Besides, they probably shouldn't put effort into that. Those things are close to useless nowadays. It's mostly a case of schools being conservative... but then, it's not that much of an effort, so there are more important things to care about.

I do know how to read an analog clock, but I dont read it subconciously, because my brain works on digital time, so I will have to look at it and then figure out what that time is if it were on a digital clock.

So if I see an analog clock I would rather look at my phone because that is just quicker than doing the conversion.

If you want to know more, look at the video Technology Connections (2?) did about it.
- I read analogue clocks subconsciously, converting them automatically to 24h time.
Actually, a lot don't. I mean, like, at least fifty percent. You would be surprised. I don't think it's schools being conservative so much as it didn't occur to teachers and staff that analogue clocks are frankly obsolete (I still like them). I didn't read this article, but it sounds like that's being corrected.

Anyways, I really respect your attitude that it's not worth getting bent out of shape or spending a lot of time on, I think you're right. A lot of people get precious about it or, worse, make fun of kids like they're stupid because they haven't wasted their time learning to read, essentially, a sundial.
Not sure about that. For high school math it is still quite important that students are familiar with circles and angles on circles. Analogue clocks are a gentle introduction to this.
If we only taught things that were "useful" then we'd be discarding half the curriculum. Stuff like history, art, and how a fucking analog clock works, is worth teaching, even if it's not something everyone uses every day.
- Stuff like history, art, and how a fucking analog clock works
  
  Well, I don't exactly disagree... but one of those things is completely different from the others.
  
  I would agree more if we were talking literally about "how an analog clock works" instead of the convention to reading them. But it would still be a niche knowledge that you can take from Wikipedia if it ever becomes relevant to you.
I'm guessing they know how, but it's not as quick as just glancing at it. I mean fuck I'm in my 40s but that's true for me, too.

bruh I can read analogue clocks and I'm gen z. it's probably rage bait though, so who cares :/

it's not rage bait, I've seen it happen plenty of times

ITT: Big boomer energy.

So many edgelords in the comments shit talking younger generations for learning different things.
Y'all sound like old farts crying about how schools stopped using slide rules and how modern music just isn't as good.

I think keeping analog tech along side the digital equivalent is probably a good idea, just in case. Plus learning varied systems makes for more adaptable and smarter people.
- There is some truth to that, but this doesn't seem like the thing to focus on, if that's the goal. Surely there is a better subject to fulfill those needs.
  
  Like... If we all forgot how to keep time, and we had to invent a new system of time keeping... Surely we could do better than what we have now.
No publisher, no byline, no way to know what the source of the claim is coming from.

But they did include a bit of meme art, so it seems indisputable.

So, schools aren't even capable of teaching students how to read clocks anymore?

They are creating more and more idiots out there. The trend of "Help, our students don't understand xyz, let's stop teaching that immediately!" is disgusting. Maybe think of teaching it in a different way or just spending more time on that topic?
Schools have more important things to teach kids with the limited time they have
- No, screw that whataboutism. When I went to school, I learned so much information that is virtually useless to most people, and not nearly enough skills and knowledge that would actually be helpful in daily life. I would like to see the situation improve for future generations.
  
  Analogue clocks are everywhere and being able to read them is still important. Besides, if schools aren't even capable of teaching something so simple to students, I think that calls into question their ability to teach far more complex things.

Wife, for years, thought the "second hand" on a clock was called that because it was the "2nd" hand on the clock...which confused her. Took her over 30 years to realize it's the "seconds" hand because it counts seconds.

I guess she is not entirely off, either. It's called that because it is the second division of an hour.

Not sure if true or clickbait, but if true it means we'll eventually lose clockwise and counter-clockwise as descriptive references.

Or the phrases stick around and people in the future just wonder what a clock has to do with rotation.
- Yep. Like uppercase and lowercase letters. Cause back when type was metal the uppercase letters were in the upper case. And the lowercase letters were in the lower drawers.
- Likely this.
Bring back widdershins!
Turnwise and widdershins
- Ook?
Righty tighty lefty loosey
- Which today just reminds you that left handed women have lower standards for casual sex. Nobody remembers its origins in manual tool usage.

"Roman numerals to be phased out"

.. Damn gen WW1

Time's an illusion anyways, might as well

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OK let's have a lesson for those who find this difficult. First, remember that little kids pick this up quickly and easily, so you can too!

We all know there are 60 seconds in a minute, 60 minutes in an hour, and 24 hours in a day, right? and that the day is divided into the a.m. of 12 hours and the p.m. of 12 hours.

So analog clocks show those 12 hours as the numbers 1-12 evenly spaced around the clock face. Now look a little closer and you see it's also divided into 60 marks with a tick mark for each of the 60 seconds/minute or 60 minutes/hour. Hang on, we're almost there!

The little hand points to the HOUR number (1-12). If it's in between two numbers, that means the time is in between those two hours.

The big hand points to the MINUTE tick mark. Notice that the 1-12 numbers coincide with each 5th tick mark so it's easy to count them. Just count by 5's! So if the big hand is between the 3 and the 4, that means the minute of the hour is between 15 and 20, look at which tick mark for the exact minute.

Now, can you figure out how the second hand works? Good! Kindergarten dismissed!

/s

I can tell the time perfectly well unless someone asks me what time it is. Then my brain is completely useless and I just have to twist my wrist around awkwardly to show them.

Real talk, is there some benefit to an analog clock that would prevent them from all being replaced by digital ones? Being able to know exactly the time in a moment's glance seems better to me.

They're certainly not better looking than a digital one, considering most of the ones used in schools are just the cheapest and most basic version they can get.

Power requirements maybe? Longevity?

Can't do that with a digital display, can you?
- It literally says on the image you sent how to do it with a digital display (besides, it's pretty reasonable)
It helps give people a geometrical understanding of the cyclic nature of time.
- Lol I don't think that's true, and I don't think those words work the way you used them anyway
It proves to be somewhat useful as an example when trying to teach fractions and decimals, something we are absolutely terrible at teaching. Incomprehension of fraction to decimal conversion is why 90% of people who say they are bad at math, say they are bad at math.
- Incomprehension of fraction to decimal conversion is why 90% of people who say they are bad at math, say they are bad at math
  
  I feel called out. I was in high-school Calculus (11th grade) before I "truly" understood fractions. Like, I honestly somehow managed to make it to Calculus without knowing how to add and subtract fractions without a calculator. Thought I was dumb in math until 9th grade algebra, and didn't start becoming a bit of a math nerd until Calculus
- Teaching someone how to read a clock for the sole purpose of using it as a math example seems like a poor use of effort.
Being able to know exactly the time in a moment’s glance seems better to me.

That seems more like a pro for analogue to me. It's much easier with an analogue clock since you get a visual presentation of time. Whenever someone tells me a time, I have to first imagine an analogue clock to understand what that time means.
- Honestly that's just about being used to one versus the other. For me it's basically the other way around
Genuine question, how precise do you need the time to be? Maybe you actually need precise readings for something. I figured that "on the 5 min marker", "slightly before/behind the 5 min marker" and "in the middle of two 5 min markers" is precise enough for me. And I see a hand at these positions faster than reading numbers.

I think for precise readings (eg. entering the time I start working), the speed is the same for me, but obviously I didn't test this.

I also think looking at the time but still not knowing what time it is a few seconds later happens less on an analog clock.

I don't know how much personal preference influences this though.
- Loads of places round working time to whole quarter hours
They convey time instantly, without reading. You don't even need the numbers for them to work. It's like showing a progress bar versus just giving the percentage as a number.
I prefer analogue clocks because I tend to have time blindness with ADHD, and it’s easier to see at a glance how much time is visually left in an hour or how much time is passing with an analogue clock. Just knowing that “15 min left” isn’t really as effective as being able to see a visual representation of “15 min left”, for example.
You can use them as a crude compass next time you find yourself unexpectedly in the wilderness.
An analog clock is just three sets of loading bars with their ends glued together. You can tell geometrically what proportion of each division of time (day, hour, and minute) are spent and what proportion remains. You don't even need the numbers.

If you need stopwatch-level precision, sure, a digital display is superior. But how often do you need that? Most of what I need clocks for is, "Oh, it's about a quarter to noon, I have a lunch appointment to get to".

It is my personal preference to visually intuit that the clock hands are roughly separating the hour into 3/4 spent and 1/4 remaining and use that to know how much time I have left to the hour, rather than read the symbols "42" on the display and manually do the mental gymnastics of "well that's basically 45, which is three quarters of the way to 60 minutes".

I'll admit this benefit is marginal.
- I think that's an interesting way to look at it. I find it easier to do the mental gymnastics, as you call it.
From a practicality standpoint, a round clockface is easier to create a mechanical drive system for.

You can create a digital mechanical face (see: Flipboard style numerical displays) but they usually require more gears and are more susceptible to wear and tear than the gears of a round clock face.

The simplest designs for mechanical digital displays actually just take 24 hour and 60 minute/second circular displays and hide the other numerals as the clock face spins around. Technically this I suppose counts as both analog and digital?

Example:

As for electronic displays? Nah not much of a reason to use a round display unless again, you have an electric-mechanical drive and want to save on gears and parts.

I'm a millenial and I can read analog clocks, but it takes me a few seconds, it's not as instant as with digital ones.

Especially when they have no numbers.

When I worked data entry, there was a chart for cursive as people couldn't understand cursive writing, and these were adults. I think this may check out (not because they're lacking, but because they probably weren't taught).

Yeah but people's cursive is more inconsistent than print. It can be super bad and print is more practical. You could say it's Same with a digital clock but an analog clock is always the same with circle and 2 hands while I don't know what characters people are trying to do with cursive.
- I agree that it takes practice, but I wasn't aware (until that job) that most people learned how to write their name only. I had to learn it when I was in 2nd or 3rd, then I kept it up because note taking was faster. But I don't think it's stopping anyone from doing anything unless you're going through hand written docs all the time. Just surprised me at the time.
I know how to read and write in cursive but there are still a lot of people whose handwriting I can't read because it's so sloppy and idiosyncratic. A chart wouldn't help me.
- That's true. But the chart was more like, "this is what cursive looks like" sort of thing. Like, some people couldn't recognize a curve "G" or other "different" letters. But I've certainly seen some cursive that might as well have been an alien language 🤣
I learned cursive but I'm sure have forgotten how to write it, especially some of the capital letters. Thing is learning it now is really just for backwards compatibility. Yes, it's faster to write in cursive when writing by hand, but how often is that coming up these days, for most people?
- Yeah I am way out of practice in my cursive. I can still read it but it wouldn't come naturally. Cursive was pounded into my head at a young age. Teachers saying we would used it every day in our lives. That was probably true for them but it was certainly not true for me.
  
  The only time I ever use cursive is signing my name. The only time I read cursive is a letter from my grandparents once they pass that would basically be the end of my cursive reading.
- Not often I think, unless you read a lot of historical documents/letters. But even a lot of those are transcribed these days. So likely only people working with doctors (and even then, probably just specific medications). Outside of the data entry job, I don't think it's come up in my life outside of school.
- If I don't have access to a keyboard something has gone catastrophically wrong (I work in IT)

You failed as a teacher, volume 1

Who cares. Analog audio, video, phones, all out the window. Next people will be complaining people don't even know anything about vacuum tubes. Digital clocks are easier to read and make more fuckin sense. Leave the kids alone. 🙄🙄🙄

It was the only way I could tell how much time is left, I didn't have a phone till highschool. In school counting down the second till school was over was so crucial.

You fool! I use 24H time, which requires analogue, or a really cluttered clock face. THIS is the signature look of superiority.

THIS IS NOT THE SIGNATURE LOOK OF SUPERIORITY I MEANT DIGITAL CLOCK THE GODS BE FUCKING DAMNED I'M SO EEPY AND I WANT TO DIE BY EEPING FOREVER SKULL EMOJIIIIIIIIIII
- https://tenor.com/bn1dF.gif
There are analog clocks that show 24 hours.

https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/Promotional-Wall-Mounted-Clock-China-Quartz_60441413076.html

https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/Promotional-Wall-Mounted-Clock-China-Quartz_60441413076.html
- But it looks cluttered, as previously mentioned. No way to make a circle fit more radians in the same space, unless....... God, my head hurts already.
Do you mean digital?
I don't where you learned to read the clock but you should sue them
Your life has to be extremely messy, to not just know which part of the day you are in. For knowing what time it is, 24h is unneccesary. For communicating time it makes sense.

10:10:37

Fun fact, 10:10 is the default time most photographers take photos of a clock/watch to help display all the logos and things a watch face has to offer!
- Fun fact number 2: because of this tradition, even digital clocks are sometimes shown as 10:10

I'd like to see their faces when trying to read a binary clock.

Haha, good one.

Ugh kids these days can't even prime a Magneto What's next morse code!?!

When I look at a digital clock I always convert it to analogue in my head. Guess I’m that old.

It's true. I teach college kids, and a couple of years ago my class was taking a midterm. The room didn't have a clock so I put my watch on the document camera display so they'd know how much time was left. A girl in the front row asked me what time it was, because she couldn't tell time. After she turned in her test, thinking she must be kind of embarrassed about this, I told her I'd be happy to teach her how to tell time. She gave me a look like "ok, boomer" and said no thanks.

Yeah that girl is going places in life. Though probably not on time.

Posted in r/Funnymemes

This would be gen alpha at this point no?

Isn't it their job to teach them then?

Anyone who wants to understand how to read an analog clock can learn it in two minutes, it's not like you need to be taught in school. edit to add: My brother recently told me that he was at the library and his friend's teenage daughter looked at the analog clock and said indignantly "I can't read that!" So apparently it is true that people aren't learning simple skills like this.

I personally know how to read an analog watch but I do it so rarely that it takes a bit of time thinking before I figure it out and convert it to 24 hour time. Because I use digital time absolutely everywhere and never analog time.

Hell I even got a digital wrist watch, mostly because it's easier and faster to read for me but also because it's more accurate. I will admit that the hitchhikers guide to the galaxy also played a role in the purchase.
- Digital vs. analog watches that run on batteries are no more or less accurate because of how the time is displayed. I have a digital clock display on my battery-powered cordless phone (yes I also have a landline) that is constantly plugged into a power source and it loses a minute or two every day. Your computer and phone only keep displaying the correct time because they frequently update themselves from an online source.
Honest question; why would they? Digital clocks and watches are have been cheaper and more accurate (and as a result more ubiquitous) for many years now. I think there's a strong argument that analogue clocks are obsolete, and that's why teens and kids aren't learning to read them.
Are all public clocks in the US digital clocks? Off the top of my head, I can tell you 4 locations within walking distance that have analog clocks, one of them being the train station.
- Nope, it still seems like most of the ones I see are analog, as in my library example. Probably most people ignore them and just check their phones for the time since they are constantly looking at them anyway.
- The point is the instinct to check phone for the time is so strong that they're not looking around for clocks.

Pathetic.

Permanently Deleted

Analog clocks are like cursive, there isn't any real world benefit so it seems like we should spend that effort on one of the many other things that schools could teach.

They look nice. Some of them anyway, not specifically school clocks which I mentally associate with "when is this day going to fucking end?" But reading a clock is not a difficult skill that takes a long time to teach.
- It's somewhat easy to teach, but also it's not a useful skill. If someone likes how analog clocks work, then they can learn it on their own time, since it's easy.
I feel like there's a bit of a difficulty difference. One requires basic spacial understanding. The other requires hundreds of hours of practice to become good. Nevertheless, learning both is a good idea for different reasons. Activating your brains via fine hand coordination is a great activity for children.

As a comparison, think about how much writing chinese children have to learn in school. They don't come out as exactly poorly educated, rather vice versa. Then again, the competetiveness in chinese schools is pretty brutal, at least if I can trust what my chinese colleagues have told me.
- I shouldn't say there is no value in learning cursive or analog clocks, I just want to say that analog/cursive is being taught in place of more valuable lessons.

Back to kindergarten then.

Who need analog clocks?? Want the time use digital! Digital is to little use Millitary time? Millitary time is to small? Use UNIX TIME

The only thing i really use thats a dial/analog is calipers and micrometers.

Its like veirneer calipers, there just time consuming and inefficient to modern offerings

Whenever somebody asks you what time it is, tell them in UNIX time. Become ungovernable.
it's now 18:53, and while I respect that it seems nonsensical when parsed as a number, I find 1853 more convenient to write on mobile (and it does save two keystrokes on keyboard too).

Miss me with that "1-1=12" shit.
- Question one for Advanced Algebra
  
  Solve for time.

It floors me just how many people in this thread feel like analog clock reading is a useless/outdated skill.

But I'm of the opinion that there's no such thing as a truly outdated and useless skill, so I'm not sure I have the capability to empathize with those people...

It's not useless.

It's just less useful that other things that should be taught in school. There is only so much time in a school year, and it shouldn't replace those more useful things in the curriculum.
- Yeah let's teach them about credit and healthcare
As a person who prefers analog clocks I disagree

What benefit does analog bring over digital other than nostalgia?
Once is objectively faster to read granularly, by the minute
- For the usability of the clock, likely nothing.
  
  I did mention In another comment that there are a number of advantages a round clockface provides to the creation of the clock, however.
I perceive remaining time much better with an analogue clock. It's also why I perceive time in fractions. I think it's the superior clock, and people should probably learn to fucking read one since they're everywhere.

I also think it's kind of insane that we're not at least learning how to read cursive in schools anymore. There are countless documents written in English that English speakers will not be able to properly decipher.
- To be fair i learnt cursive and i can still not decipher most of it, even my own writing (or rather especially my own writing)

I lied about knowing how to read these until high school, then I was too embarrassed to ask, so I learned how to read them.

As if they teach us how to read those clocks anyways

I just really enjoy the photo, the character looks funny. I agree that shit like this just causes division but at the same time it's like any other rude meme towards group X or person Y. just another dumb meme to go ha ha to and move on

Guys lets be honest why point at small Numbers which you have to read in a specific sequence while doing some math when you can easily and nowadays probably more efficiently (paper-ink) display them... Analog clocks are going to disappear and people will watch at them with the same eyes as we watch a sundial...(Btw I had to search for the translation of the world sundial that's how common it is ... 😉)
I can ready It but i get teens Who dont

They should just be taught how to read time in school
- Yeah or Just replace every old watch 😉
Analog clocks are a better representation of how we think of time than a digital clock.

If someone looks and immediately afterwards someone asks them for the time, they will look at their watch again. The number isn't really what matters, it's "how long until X will happen" that matters more.

You know you're meeting is at 10:30, you see it's 9:55. You know it's about a half hour until the meeting, and the meeting will happen when that big hand gets to the bottom. The numbers themselves won't do that for you, you have to think 60 minutes in an hour, 60-5 = 5 + 30 = 35 minutes away. When you check the digital clock again you see 10:17, so you have to think 30-17 = 13 minutes until the meeting. But with an analog clock it's like a reusable progress bar (well progress arc to be more accurate). Quick glance and you see how far the minute hand has to go and you're good.

Sure the mental math needed to get a sense of time with a digital clock isn't all that hard. But it is an additional step over the adhoc progress arcs that analog clocks provide.

Digital clocks are fine and all, but are just slightly worse than analog clocks. Just how technology is going I guess, always giving us something that's technically more advanced but worse for humans to interface with.
- Er, what? If I look at the clock and see it's 0955 I know exactly that it's 35 minutes. Same for every other example you give. If it's 1252, it's so easy to add 8 minutes then add whatever it is more. And you can do that for any time. Say 1017. "Oh no!" Never fear, the just add it to the time wangs are here: +13 to 30 and woah! Easy, foolproof and actually intuitive

I have a hard time with analog clocks because my brain scrambles shit up and I get really confused. Like, even the hands seem weird when your brain flips the numbers around

I assume replacing them with digital? It’s just an upgrade in technology.

Not only we have retarded boomers, we also have kids who are too stupid to read an analog clock. Wonderful.

Yeah definitely a stupidity problem and not an education problem. /s

1 if u dont kids how to do a thing they dont learn

2 and more importantly; finally, analog clocks have no place in our wold and every last one should be in trash they serve literally no purpose, i have always hated them and i will delight in their death.

What if I want to know the time?
- digital clocks will rule the world our time will come ur children's children wont even say clockwise and anti clockwise cuz they wont know what those are