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Halosheep ,

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?

AngryCommieKender ,

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.

PeriodicallyPedantic ,

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.

AngryCommieKender ,

I wouldn’t say that’s the sole purpose, just an additional purpose to being able to tell time. It’s also useful if the kid wants to be a pilot.

PeriodicallyPedantic ,

So what are the purposes? Nobody uses analog clocks anymore so afaict:

  1. To teach fractions
  2. Something to do with being a pilot???

What am I missing? 😛

Bytemeister ,

Clockwise, counter clockwise. Classic time shorthand (IE, half past ten, quarter to eleven). Time estimations (easy to see a half minute on a analog clock, digital just goes from 2:00 to 2:01)

I think analog clock displays are more elegant, and are overall nicer than digital. Personal preference though.

PeriodicallyPedantic ,

I’m not saying nobody should learn it, I’m saying it’s not a great use of school resources. If you appreciate the aesthetic or functionality, then by all means go out and learn it. I personally like them, but I think that it should remain out of the curriculum for purely practical reasons.

I still don’t really see any useful skills that learning an analog clock teaches you, besides how to read an analog clock, which isn’t useful because analog clocks are so rare IRL.
The handful of useful skills they assist teaching isn’t worth it because there are better ways to teach those things. The clock isn’t so good at teaching all those things that it’s worth using the clock instead.

MrShankles ,

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

RaoulDook ,

It helps give people a geometrical understanding of the cyclic nature of time.

WldFyre ,

Lol I don’t think that’s true, and I don’t think those words work the way you used them anyway

RaoulDook ,

Sounds like you just didn’t understand. Each hour of the 12 on the clock takes up 30° of the circle, and we measure time in cycles of hours, minutes, seconds that all match up well with the 360° of a circle.

WldFyre ,

Cutting pizza would also teach kids a geometrical understanding of how circles work, I don’t see how that translates at all to being innate to reading a clock. I know tons of people who can read a clock who suck at math. It seems like an incredibly weak assertion.

RaoulDook ,

Making any excuse to not learn how analog clocks work is what’s really a weak assertion. It’s not that fucking hard.

pseudopsyche ,

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.

Tudsamfa , (edited )

https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/43608bd1-842b-4cb4-9bb9-1c09491c777a.jpeg

Can’t do that with a digital display, can you?

JeyNessuno ,

It literally says on the image you sent how to do it with a digital display (besides, it’s pretty reasonable)

Tudsamfa ,

Yeah, but you have to imagine it, and some people have Aphantasia. Have a watch ready for when you suddenly can’t form mental images any more and also get lost somewhere.

MonkderVierte ,

Not if you can’t imagine analogue clock.

psud ,

Their method is “imagine a clock face showing that hour” how are you going to do that if you don’t know how analogue clocks work?

Faresh ,

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.

Scrath ,

Honestly that’s just about being used to one versus the other. For me it’s basically the other way around

windpunch , (edited )

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.

psud ,

Loads of places round working time to whole quarter hours

kshade ,
@kshade@lemmy.world avatar

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.

pixelscript ,

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.

Halosheep ,

I think that’s an interesting way to look at it. I find it easier to do the mental gymnastics, as you call it.

Got_Bent ,

You can use them as a crude compass next time you find yourself unexpectedly in the wilderness.

WalnutLum ,

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:

Image

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.

marcos ,

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.

Monstrosity ,
@Monstrosity@lemm.ee avatar

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.

Eatspancakes84 ,

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.

johannesvanderwhales ,

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.

Noobnarski ,

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.

AnUnusualRelic ,
@AnUnusualRelic@lemmy.world avatar

I read analogue clocks subconsciously, converting them automatically to 24h time.

TwistedTurtle ,

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.

marcos ,

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.

TylerDurdenJunior ,

“Roman numerals to be phased out”

… Damn gen WW1

kemsat ,

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.

Lila_Uraraka ,

As if they teach us how to read those clocks anyways

ngwoo ,

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

AngryCommieKender ,

Seriously! I’m pretty sure that was part of 1st or 2nd grade. Maybe both…

accideath ,

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…

WarlordSdocy ,

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

Maggoty ,

We had one in every classroom. So we only had to look at it for reinforcement of the original lesson.

WarlordSdocy ,

We had them too but at least for me in elementary school I didn’t really care what time it was. I remember I knew what position on the clock meant school was done but other then that didn’t really need to read it cause the teachers would just bring us as a class to whatever our next class was for that day. By the time I got old enough to start caring smartphones were prevalent enough that I never really needed to learn how to read a clock. It wasn’t until highschool where teachers got more strict about enforcing no phones out in class that I then learned how to read clocks so I could know when class would be done.

LesserAbe ,

Gather round, children, time to learn how to use a dial up modem, and after that we’ll go over Morse code.

Zoot ,
@Zoot@reddthat.com avatar

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

psud ,

We learned analogue clocks in children’s TV also

AFaithfulNihilist , (edited )
@AFaithfulNihilist@lemmy.world avatar

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.

ReakDuck ,

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

hector ,

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

Daxtron2 ,

This would be gen alpha at this point no?

linkhidalgogato ,

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.

Iampossiblyatwork ,

What if I want to know the time?

linkhidalgogato ,

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

Iampossiblyatwork ,

I am curious how else we would describe the direction of circular motion

linkhidalgogato ,

idk i was gonna say what they would say instead but the i realize i have no idea what they could say.

2ugly2live ,
@2ugly2live@lemmy.world avatar

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).

Spacehooks ,

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.

2ugly2live ,
@2ugly2live@lemmy.world avatar

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.

lolcatnip ,

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.

2ugly2live ,
@2ugly2live@lemmy.world avatar

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 🤣

LesserAbe ,

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?

2ugly2live ,
@2ugly2live@lemmy.world avatar

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.

Catsrules ,

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.

Zorsith ,
@Zorsith@lemmy.blahaj.zone avatar

If I don’t have access to a keyboard something has gone catastrophically wrong (I work in IT)

akilou ,

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

Rooskie91 ,

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?

Frozengyro ,

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.

RubberElectrons ,
@RubberElectrons@lemmy.world avatar

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.

Carrot ,

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:

  1. Mindless dribble. (looking at you, Youtube Kids)
  2. 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)
  3. 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.

PeriodicallyPedantic ,

“Gen-z is killing the analog clock industry” news articles incoming

carl_dungeon ,

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

Imgonnatrythis ,

Florida is getting rid of all the books at least.

SteveFromMySpace ,

DAE younger generation bad

Zoboomafoo ,

Time’s an illusion anyways, might as well

SteveFromMySpace ,

Lunchtime doubly so

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