are Americans really confused with 15:30?
America
Submitted 4 weeks ago by InterestingUsername@lemmy.ml to [deleted]
https://lemmy.ml/pictrs/image/b1d8eccf-5573-4b54-bd8c-ac0b1b737020.jpeg
Comments
IAmNorRealTakeYourMeds@lemmy.world 4 weeks ago
corvi@lemmy.zip 4 weeks ago
Only inasmuch as I have to count from 12 because I don’t have the built-in instinct for that time format.
fartographer@lemmy.world 4 weeks ago
If you see a two-digit number beginning with 1, drop the first number and subtract two from the second number. If your sum is negative, it’s that many hours before noon.
If your number begins with 2, do the same thing. If your number is negative, it’s that many hours before 10pm.
AnUnusualRelic@lemmy.world 4 weeks ago
You’d get that instinct within at most a week though.
chatokun@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 weeks ago
Nah, all you need is a little time to get used to it. It’s my default setting on most of my devices.
eestileib@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 weeks ago
I switched after being in a job where “meeting at 6” or “I’ll get in at 9” was 50/50 am or pm and I got sick of guessing and sometimes being 12 hours off.
Rolder@reddthat.com 4 weeks ago
I’m regularly looking at log timestamps and I still need a very brief half second to think about the time lol
GamingChairModel@lemmy.world 4 weeks ago
Shouldn’t the system be storing timestamps in UTC anyway, and then displaying them in whatever localization settings you have?
AnUnusualRelic@lemmy.world 4 weeks ago
I think they see it as some kind of metric time, and therefore something to be avoided at all costs.
eestileib@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 weeks ago
Written as 1530, mostly only Americans who have been in the military and their friends will know what you mean.
15:30 they’ll know it’s a time.
PapaStevesy@lemmy.world 4 weeks ago
And doctors, nurses, lab technicians, etc, plus anyone who can subtract twelve.
Knightfox@lemmy.world 4 weeks ago
No, it’s just a familiarity thing and not even rare. It’s like switching between metric and imperial units, if you’re used to seeing something in one format it can be jarring to switch it in your head at a moments notice. A lot of people in the US use 24 hr time if they have a job relating to documentation or if their working hours can cause confusion.
For example, I have a client that has to document received material and they are open from 04:00 - 22:00. They use the 24 hr format because it is common to receive material at both 04:00 and 16:00 and having to make an extra column to type am or pm on their logs is stupid and is just another opportunity to make a mistake.
It’s really not a big deal to anyone, if you get a job that uses it then you switch your phone and within a week or two it’s second nature. Every blue moon someone will notice that all your clocks are set to a 24 hr clock and someone might ask why or what you do to need it, but that’s it.
0x0@lemmy.zip 4 weeks ago
t’s like switching between metric and imperial units,
I’d wager the imperial/metric change would be harder than the 12/24 change.
stickyprimer@lemmy.world 4 weeks ago
I grew up with a Betamax tape player under the family TV. It had a 24 hour clock and it was the timepiece in the house that was in the right spot to tell us all that it was bedtime. As a result I have an intuitive feel for the 24 hour clock. But if you haven’t used it regularly, which most ordinary Americans don’t, then yeah you just have to stop and do the arithmetic before you can connect 21:00 to your sense of time.
petrol_sniff_king@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 weeks ago
You know what fucks me up is that 21 has a “nine-ness” quality to it now that sometimes makes me mess up real math.
missandry351@lemmings.world 4 weeks ago
They think it’s military time. I don’t know why because it doesn’t even read the same. Military would be something like thousand five hundred and thirty hours, we (people with 24h clocks) read it like fifteen thirty or three thirty in the afternoon, or even three thirty and omit the morning/afternoon part because it’s assumed from context.
Knightfox@lemmy.world 4 weeks ago
Not really true either, it’s often called military time as a colloquialism because people will know what you mean and it strangely feels more normal/easier to say than “Twenty Four Hour Clock.”
IAmNorRealTakeYourMeds@lemmy.world 4 weeks ago
which is such a stupid way to tell time.
why tf do they concatenate hours and minutes!!! they aren’t even the same units!!!
GreenKnight23@lemmy.world 4 weeks ago
what is that, like extra noon or something?
musubibreakfast@lemmy.world 4 weeks ago
Yes, it angers and confuses them.
0x0@lemmy.zip 4 weeks ago
THAT’S 1530, PRIVATE!
NOW GIVE ME 20!IAmNorRealTakeYourMeds@lemmy.world 4 weeks ago
20 factorial, of fuck
Mouselemming@sh.itjust.works 4 weeks ago
No, we just have to do a little kindergarten (age 5) math, the difference between 12 and 15 is 3.
The 3rd-grade math (age 8) of figuring what time it will be 9 hours and 47 minutes later is equally difficult whether using 24h or am/pm. And may be easier using angles on an analog clockface, especially for an old fart like me.
The real problem with time isn’t 12h vs 24h. It’s the increments 12/24/60/30/15/5 when the rest of our system is base 10.
Oh and Daylight Savings. Jet lag without getting to go anywhere. Fuck that shit.
captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works 4 weeks ago
Pilot here, over been in the habit of using 12 hour for local time and 24 hour for zulu time. “12:45pm, 1745z”
Soulg@ani.social 4 weeks ago
No, it’s just associated with military time and those who don’t have friends from across the pond don’t necessarily know that other countries use that time format.
Just kidding we’re all just stupid
hansolo@lemmy.today 4 weeks ago
Large parts of the world use 24h time regularly. Only Americans, as far as I know, really struggle with 24h time, roundabouts, and bidets as concepts.
MrVilliam@sh.itjust.works 4 weeks ago
American here. I use 24h time, vastly favor roundabouts over traffic lights, and I would rather poop at home with my bidet attachment than get paid to poop at work. I’m not exactly your average American, but there are probably millions of us. The world mostly hears the loud dipshits because they are loud and their thoughts are dipshit enough that people who hear them feel the need to tell somebody about what a stupid dipshit take they heard from some loud dipshit.
hansolo@lemmy.today 4 weeks ago
Yeah, I’m also an American. Those are examples from personal experience.
When I was growing up the dipshit town where my family lived was thinking about installing a roundabout instead of the series of 4 lights in front of the Walmart. The level of genuine panic it caused was insane. Huge groups at city council meetings with signs worried about car insurance rates going up because of “all the accidents it will cause!” Needless to say, it didn’t happen. Meanwhile, roundabouts work just fine for the rest of Earth and I’ve only ever seen one accident in one, due to construction.
JustAnotherKay@lemmy.world 4 weeks ago
This is poetic
HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world 4 weeks ago
did someone mention dipshittery? i have a card in case you need me
HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world 4 weeks ago
SkunkWorkz@lemmy.world 4 weeks ago
There are countries in Europe that don’t use bidets. Not even a handheld bidet shower. In those countries they don’t even wash their ass or cooch the old school way unless they are from a migrant family.
Danquebec@sh.itjust.works 4 weeks ago
My wife is from.Colombian and not used to the 24 hour system.
RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world 4 weeks ago
Technically she’s still American. Just South American.
skisnow@lemmy.ca 4 weeks ago
Does she refer to it as “hora militar” though?
hansolo@lemmy.today 4 weeks ago
robocall@lemmy.world 4 weeks ago
Bidets are slowly growing in popularity in the USA. But only for home installation, I haven’t seen them in public restrooms yet.
Mac@mander.xyz 4 weeks ago
24hr time is simply superior in every way. I don’t get why more people dont swap it.
I changed mine on a whim years ago and never looked back.hOrni@lemmy.world 4 weeks ago
Like the old truth “America does everything the wrong way”. 24h is superior, metric is superior, dd.mm.yyyy format is superior, etc…
Jankatarch@lemmy.world 4 weeks ago
A4 is superior.
Yes US doesn’t use A4 paper for printing.
Jakule17@lemmy.world 4 weeks ago
dd.mm.yyyy
I believe in ISO 8601 supremacy
(I’m not saying its not better than American one thougn)
GeneralEmergency@lemmy.world 4 weeks ago
One of my favourite examples of this is road sign lettering.
Instead of just using the same style as Europe.
They created their own, which caused its own problems.
Then created a replacement, which didn’t help.
imjustmsk@lemmy.ml 4 weeks ago
too lazy to learn.
missandry351@lemmings.world 4 weeks ago
Only muricans think 24h clock = military time 😂
ArgumentativeMonotheist@lemmy.world 4 weeks ago
Everything is military/war oriented. Remember the “war on drugs”? They can’t comprehend the world except from a perspective of opposition and control. 🤷🥲
RabbitMix@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 weeks ago
I hate when people associate the two. I got used to it because I was in civil aviation, and I kept using it because it’s better.
0x0@lemmy.zip 4 weeks ago
Well it kinda is 'cos jar heads can’t say 12:00, they say 1200, a literal twelve-hundred. Only military does that.
HotsauceHurricane@lemmy.world 4 weeks ago
I do it because then I don’t put my calendar appointments in at oh, 3:00 AM.
15:00 is SOOOOOO much better for adhd me.
OldManWithACane@lemmy.zip 4 weeks ago
Also fewer wasted pixels on the am/pm text. 24h is just objectively superior in every way.
panda_abyss@lemmy.ca 4 weeks ago
12 hour time is a scam created by clockmakers who wanted to save paint.
MatSeFi@lemmy.liebeleu.de 4 weeks ago
Bahh… The full day is 2π.
- 12:00 is π
- 15:00 is 3/2π And so on… Sane people use 2π = 𝜏 instead.
baltakatei@sopuli.xyz 4 weeks ago
Hard mode: set time zone to UTC (or Reykjavik; it’s the same) and force yourself to add/subtract offset hours every time you want to know local time. Also, this forces you to track when exactly daylight saving time starts and stops.
Benefit: you know when space probe stuff happens because they’re almost always timestamped UTC. Also, playing Eve Online becomes slightly easier.
MrScottyTay@sh.itjust.works 4 weeks ago
In the UK we all (generally) read 24 hour but speak in 12 hour. So we see 15:00 but say 3. Only military peeps talk on 24, and it can sound weird, but people can easily understand them as long as they can parse the who “-hundred” thing (15:00 being fifteen-hundred)
Multiplexer@discuss.tchncs.de 4 weeks ago
24hr analog watches are the real shit, though!
Had a good emulated one on my phone homescreen for a long time, but unfortunately app is not supported by newer versions of Android any more… :-(
invertedspear@lemmy.zip 4 weeks ago
Dealing with dates and times in software will get you formatting using year-month-date and 24 hour time as the least possible chance for confusion.
Datz@szmer.info 4 weeks ago
I remember when I was a kid who joined a mostly American guild with Discord server in Warframe.
I was so confused when I wrote the time in 24h and the guy I was chatting with seemed genuinely uncomfortable with me writing in military jargon.
(He also believed in ghosts and I had trouble explaining the difference between additive and multiplicative multipliers to him)
Soleos@lemmy.world 4 weeks ago
Only in America do they judge people for using the 24hr clock. Most of the rest of the world uses it. worldpopulationreview.com/…/what-countries-use-24…
RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world 4 weeks ago
There are several industries that run on 24 hour time outside of the military. Ocean shipping, aviation, and medical care off the top of my head. Want to throw a real wrench in the works? Start figuring Zulu time, especially when time changes happen at different times of the year in different countries or US states that don’t change at all.
Anyway, 24 hour time is so much easier. No making mistakes forgetting to select AM/PM when setting an alarm or reminder, for instance. Even converting it to 12 hour time takes no thought at all of you use it for a while.
Gaja0@lemmy.zip 4 weeks ago
There are two comments here:
- I can count to 24
- I get confused by 12PM
The real crime is dividing the day into 24h, 60m per hour, 60s per min.
skisnow@lemmy.ca 4 weeks ago
Looking at how the clock in Windows defaults based on region, it seems to be mostly the Whiter of the former British colonies plus a few South American countries that use 12h (for computing, at least). The rest of the world are all 24h.
YiddishMcSquidish@lemmy.today 4 weeks ago
Fuck people who work in logistics right?
JamBandFan1996@lemmy.ml 4 weeks ago
Listen, it’s easier, especially when you work with scientific or industrial systems
gray@lemmy.ml 4 weeks ago
I just don’t understand what pm and am mean:(
Someplaceunknown@leminal.space 4 weeks ago
I use 24h time because my frens are of different timezones
SnarkoPolo@lemmy.world 4 weeks ago
I used to work in radio, and we kept our logs in 24h time.
fartographer@lemmy.world 4 weeks ago
My sleep schedule is shit. I set everything to 24 hours so that I don’t wake up at 8 PM and think that I’m late for my work at 8 AM.
bearboiblake@pawb.social 3 weeks ago
Sometimes I struggle with time perception because of PTSD issues - I’ll lose track of whether it’s day/evening/night and whether I’ve slept etc. I accidentally set my watch to 12 hour mode when moving it an hour for daylight savings and it confused the shit out of me. It’s so much clearer to glance at and determine if it’s evening or daytime when there’s no p.m./a.m.
hidalgo_islenio@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Don’t want the payroll people confuse the night shift with the morning shift. It’s purely an economical arrangement. Besides I ain’t even American.
JennaR8r@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 weeks ago
Well I’m glad to be an actual us army veteran so I can unapologetically use the 24-hour format, which is easier & makes more sense than the 12-hour format.
MasterNerd@lemmy.zip 3 weeks ago
American 24-hour user here. Its just a lot easier to calculate time intervals and tell the time from a quick glance with 24-hour time.
Crackhappy@lemmy.world 4 weeks ago
Jack Bauer wants to know your location. And if you don’t tell him he will torture your wife.
daggermoon@piefed.world 4 weeks ago
Someone can’t count past 12.
roguetrick@lemmy.world 4 weeks ago
And nurses I guess.
bleistift2@sopuli.xyz 4 weeks ago
As someone who grew up with a 24-hour clock, I can deal with 12 hours. Usually there’s no confusion if your store opens at 7am or 7pm. But 12:30PM being a valid time and meaning ‘00:30 on the next day’ fucks me up every time.
panda_abyss@lemmy.ca 4 weeks ago
12:30 AM is 00:30 though?
They shouldn’t even have 12 on the clock, it should be 0 because the 12 hour clock is module 12.
MasterNerd@lemmy.zip 4 weeks ago
Case and point as to why it’s confusing lmao
stickyprimer@lemmy.world 4 weeks ago
He did say it always fucks him up :D
tiramichu@sh.itjust.works 4 weeks ago
12:30PM means 30 minutes after 12-noon.
People saying that and meaning the middle of the night are just wrong, and if that’s a genuine thing it would drive me quite mad.
30 minutes after midnight is 12:30AM
exu@feditown.com 4 weeks ago
Perfectly illustrates how it doesn’t make sense.
I can get behind
Or
But
just doesn’t make sense.
bleistift2@sopuli.xyz 4 weeks ago
As I said, it always fucks me up. The AM/PM indicator wraps at a different hour than the hours. Aaargh!
GalacticGrapefruit@lemmy.world 4 weeks ago
Literally this. I was never in the military, and I’m glad they literally can’t draft me unless they lower a lot of requirements really fast. But 24-hour time is just so much more sensible. There’s no “AM or PM?” follow-up question, no guesswork. It just makes sense.
If they made metric time, I’d adopt that shit in a heartbeat.
arctanthrope@lemmy.world 4 weeks ago
the standard time that almost everyone uses is metric, i.e. is part of the metric system, its units are SI units. there was a system of decimal time, if that’s what you mean, developed in France during the revolution, where a day is 10 hours, each 100 minutes, each 100 seconds
so a decimal hour is 2.4 standard hours
a decimal minute is 1.44 standard minutes
a decimal second is 0.864 standard seconds
JcbAzPx@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
The French tried metric time. It was pretty quickly abandoned.
HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world 4 weeks ago
how heartbeat? I have a metric calendar that only one other person likes. 13 months of 4 weeks of 7 days, with one day leftover for celebrating my birthday (because i decided we’re doing the calendar, the day off is my birthday suck it trebek)
homes@piefed.world 4 weeks ago
This teaches you the value of terms like “half past noon“ and “half past midnight“
_stranger_@lemmy.world 4 weeks ago
In Europe they say “point five past noon” and “point two five to midnight”
Zwiebel@feddit.org 4 weeks ago
“Closes at 25:00” is funny too
bleistift2@sopuli.xyz 4 weeks ago
But luckily unambiguous.
Mouselemming@sh.itjust.works 4 weeks ago
12:30 pm is half-past noon.
12:30 am is half past midnight, or as you would say 00:30
The m is “meridian” which is noon (sun straight up)
The a is ante/before and the p is post/after
In olden days it was easier to look up and set your clock at noon than midnight.
feannag@sh.itjust.works 4 weeks ago
By the definition of post meridian, though, half past noon should be 0:30 pm.
PapaStevesy@lemmy.world 4 weeks ago
It doesn’t mean that.