I am in the transition age range of people who have trouble reading analog clocks and I must admit I had trouble with it until I started wearing a watch as an accessory as a teenager. The issue isn’t that it’s hard, it’s just something that you need practice at to do quickly and a lot of young people just don’t look at analog clocks to tell time very often. It’s not a matter of being stupid or not being taught how to do it, it’s like mental “muscle memory” that just isn’t built up in a world where digital clocks are everywhere, including in your pocket 24/7
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smiletolerantly@awful.systems 12 hours ago
I feel like I’m going insane reading these comments about how difficult it is to read analog clocks, how it needs too much understanding of maths, how it takes too long,…
Can someone please confirm: you just look, for a fraction of a second, at the clock face and know the time, right?
Learning to read the clock was like… A couple of lessons and some homework in the 2nd grade, and everyone got it.
markovs_gun@lemmy.world 7 hours ago
JcbAzPx@lemmy.world 2 hours ago
Watches were pretty ubiquitous before the smart phone was popularized. Though, digital watches were common since the '80s, so I’m not sure how much that really figures in. There is some truth, though, in needing to regularly do it to keep the skill.
Jyrdano@lemmy.world 12 hours ago
I can confirm. You are not insane.
Pat_Riot@lemmy.today 7 hours ago
Clock reading was covered in kindergarten and cursive writing taught in 1st grade. These were some of the first wrinkles pushed into our little growing brains in the early 80s by school. That these things are no longer being taught so early explains why so many people are willing to immediately accept the Google AI overview as gospel and are wearing Crocs everywhere they go.
AntEater@discuss.tchncs.de 2 hours ago
and are wearing Crocs everywhere they go.
Oooh, that’s harsh.
smiletolerantly@awful.systems 7 hours ago
FWIW, I went to school in mid-2000. My sibling even later. They still taught it back then, and at least here, I am pretty sure they still do. (And why would they not, after all…)
DarrinBrunner@lemmy.world 6 hours ago
Throughout middle school and high school, my bedroom clock was one of these, just the mechanism, no face, no numbers, hanging off the edge of a shelf. I had no trouble reading it. I still can easily read an analog clock with no numbers or any face marks.
technocrit@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 hours ago
Learning to read the clock was like… A couple of lessons and some homework in the 2nd grade, and everyone got it.
Yes, this meme is pretty obviously fake.
tlmcleod@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 hours ago
How tf are we in 2025 and people are still spouting off as if all humans have the same brain capacity and capability?
smiletolerantly@awful.systems 8 hours ago
Literally noone I know in real life has any problem whatsoever reading analog clocks, no matter the “brain capacity”, neuro-typicality, state of drunkenness,… It is an extremely simple “skill”.
buttnugget@lemmy.world 11 hours ago
I don’t know, I’ve never particularly liked analogue clocks. I don’t think I ever thought of them as difficult to read, but it’s far superior to look at an exact number like digital usually features.
smiletolerantly@awful.systems 11 hours ago
Disagree - it rarely matters to me if it’s 13:24:56 or 13:25:05, but I do find the instant and intuitive gauging of time deltas super useful (as in, how long it’s going to be on to the full hour / two quarter past / … ). Not saying you can’t get that info from a digital clock as well, of course you can; but the physically of analog clocks lends a good bit of intuition, I feel.
Redex68@lemmy.world 10 hours ago
I get that, but I personally find that I often do care about the exact time, down to the minutes, and that’s harder to track with an analogue clock. I don’t have particular problems in reading them, I just often prefer digital clocks.
But I will agree that I feel analogue clocks give a better vibe of the time, since its basically a pie chart of how far you are in the day.
smiletolerantly@awful.systems 10 hours ago
Yeah, vibe of the time is a good description
buttnugget@lemmy.world 11 hours ago
That does make sense.
GeneralEmergency@lemmy.world 8 hours ago
Lemmites will never miss an opportunity to make things difficult to draw attention to themselves.
Mickey7@lemmy.world 8 hours ago
Yeah but the “hard” work of reading an analog clock apparently offends some people. Just more of “feelings” nonsense vs. facts
ThirdConsul@lemmy.ml 10 hours ago
I’m 35. Math major. Work in STEAM. Well educated.
I hate analogue clocks. Why use subpar way of reading time if digital is so much better?
smiletolerantly@awful.systems 10 hours ago
Because it’s not! Glad to help you clear that up.
wischi@programming.dev 11 hours ago
To be fair if you are never exposed to it (and judging by the comments that seems to have happened in the US) you can’t tell the time by “just looking at it”. But analog clocks are objectively simpler to teach to children (let’s say three to eight years old).
Spaniard@lemmy.world 6 hours ago
Yes.
I used to have some complex thinking I was slow at reading time in an analog watch, these days I feel much more confident.
sommerset@thelemmy.club 6 hours ago
Man I always felt analog clocks are just old age. I felt like that for about 30 years
GeneralEmergency@lemmy.world 9 hours ago
Lemmites love to make things more difficult than they need to be.
Bo
FelixCress@lemmy.world 12 hours ago
These comments are made by lazy idiots arguing that there is nothing wrong with being lazy idiot.
buttnugget@lemmy.world 11 hours ago
I don’t understand how you could possibly classify looking at a clock as lazy.
FelixCress@lemmy.world 10 hours ago
Read again.
buttnugget@lemmy.world 10 hours ago
I just don’t see what any of this has to do with laziness.