Old man yelling at clouds checking in. I understand the prevalence of digital, but still can’t wrap my head around younger people not understanding how to read an analog clock.
I hear phrases like "half-past", "quarter til", and "quarter after" way less often since digital clocks have became more commonplace.
Submitted 8 months ago by GiuseppeAndTheYeti@midwest.social to showerthoughts@lemmy.world
Comments
MushuChupacabra@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Wolf_359@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Of course the kids don’t know how to read them. Kids rarely encounter analog clocks and when they do, they have several digital clocks within arms length. Most people wouldn’t reach for a slide rule when they have a calculator.
And to be fair, analog clocks are objectively worse than digital clocks in every way aside from aesthetics.
Omgpwnies@lemmy.world 8 months ago
I grew up around both, for simply telling time, digital is far better. Analog though to me gives a better sense of the passage of time I guess you could call it? Like, you can see the hour hand has moved a distance after a little while; or if I want to do something for half an hour, I just have to watch for when the minute hand is pointing 180 degrees away from where it was when I started, things like that.
KingJalopy@lemm.ee 8 months ago
My kid has analog clocks on her school tests and homework as questions. They are teaching them to read them, most just don’t care for the reasons you stated.
FooBarrington@lemmy.world 8 months ago
When I was in elementary school, my teacher asked us which kind of clock is easier to read. I said “digital, because it shows the numbers”. She told me “no, analog is easier to read, because you just look at it and know the time without reading the numbers”.
I thought that was stupid back then, and it’s still stupid now, because I have to calculate the time whenever I need to read an analog clock. Still can’t read them quickly.
shneancy@lemmy.world 8 months ago
as someone with adhd I much prefer analogue clocks, they allow me to see time through physical distance of the clock hands which helps with perceiving it, numbers don’t do that for me
RandomVideos@programming.dev 8 months ago
Younger people dont know how to read analog clocks?
Im young and neither i nor anyone i know doesnt know how to read an analog clock
GlendatheGayWitch@lemmy.world 8 months ago
They stopped teaching it in schools around TX a long time ago. High Schoolers nowadays were shocked when I said that reading clocks was a 1st grade skill because they weren’t taught to tell time.
AA5B@lemmy.world 8 months ago
I tried to raise my kids with analog clocks, specifically because they’d see digital everywhere else. It didn’t work. They know how to use an analog clock but find it more natural to pull out their phone
Actually, the barbarians won. I’ve mostly given up on analog because they’re wrong too often. My digital clocks rely on power and are synched, so they’re either correct or off. My analog clocks are battery and don’t synch with anything so it might be wrong and it might not be obvious. (While I’ve looked into analog clocks that synch with something, they generally fail the “looks nice” part)
bjoern_tantau@swg-empire.de 8 months ago
Come to Germany. We still argue about how to properly say that. In some regions “quarter nine” means 8:15.
slazer2au@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Could be worse. Could be Dutch.
What time is it?
Ten over half eight.
…
7:40
Cossty@lemmy.world 8 months ago
I see no problem with this? Makes sense.
Feathercrown@lemmy.world 8 months ago
…what
Canadian_Cabinet@lemmy.ca 8 months ago
In Spanish its pretty common to express time past 30 as next hour minus time left. So 8:45 can be expressed as 9 minus 15
MicrowavedTea@infosec.pub 8 months ago
I feel this is the way that best reflects how you look at an analog clock. First hours then minutes. It’d be interesting to know if the amount of people saying time the analog way depends on the system used.
MadBob@feddit.nl 8 months ago
Same in English, except that we say “half past” for xx:30. 08:35 is “twenty-five to nine”.
person@lemm.ee 8 months ago
[deleted]Please_Do_Not@lemm.ee 8 months ago
10 ÷ .5x8
Feathercrown@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Why WOULD it mean 8:15? The only two options I would think of are 8:45 and 9:15.
wise_pancake@lemmy.ca 8 months ago
This is why I don’t talk to members of the British Isles, they do this.
troyunrau@lemmy.ca 8 months ago
KDE for years had a clock option called “fuzzy clock” where you could set the granularity of time, either in 5, 10, 15, 20, 30, or 60 minute resolution. So it would just say “five to six” or whatever in words. It was designed to keep you from clock watching while working. Not sure if it exists anymore :)
dabaldeagul@feddit.nl 8 months ago
It does! I recently switched to Linux, and when messing with some of the options, I found that. It’s pretty neat tbh
Kusimulkku@lemm.ee 8 months ago
I like how it sometimes if you set the fuzziness to max it says just “lunch” or I think “second breakfast”
MadBob@feddit.nl 8 months ago
Limmy used to have a talking clock on his website that’d say stuff like “just gone half two” if it was 14:32 or “coming up on three” at 14:58 or whatever. Surprisingly good idea.
Boozilla@lemmy.world 8 months ago
I went to public school in the 80s and every classroom had a very large analog clock on the wall. Even back then, it mildly annoyed me when teachers and other adults would say “half past” so on. It always sounded archaic to my ears, even 40+ years ago.
I also get annoyed when people say “two thousand and twenty-four” for the year. Just say “twenty twenty-four”. We didn’t say “one thousand nine-hundred and eighty-four” back in the day, we said “nineteen eight-four”.
ricecake@sh.itjust.works 8 months ago
There was a solid decade where the pattern broke, and so e people didn’t get back into it.
Two thousand, two thousand one etc don’t really work as “twenty oh-one”, etc.
tiredofsametab@kbin.run 8 months ago
I was taught in the '80s that you shouldn't use 'and' in a number that isn't followed by a decimal portion (e.g. 23 and 4 hundredths). I've seen various back-and-forth on that topic over the years.
Boozilla@lemmy.world 8 months ago
That sounds familiar. Applies to check writing, for those who still do that.
gregorum@lemm.ee 8 months ago
This is literally the first time I’ve ever heard the term “analog clock”
feedum_sneedson@lemmy.world 8 months ago
one thousand nine hundred and eighty-four
southernbrewer@lemmy.world 8 months ago
What else would you call an analog clock?
criitz@reddthat.com 8 months ago
It goes
- nineteen ninety-eight
- nineteen ninety-nine
- two thousand
- two thousand one
- two thousand two
- …
- two thousand nine
- twenty ten
- twenty eleven
- etc
WhatsHerBucket@lemmy.world 8 months ago
And stay offa mah lawn!
thistledown@rblind.com 8 months ago
Can you really say “1984” with confidence either way given Big Brother?
hamid@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Are you like 100 years old? I’m in my 40s and have had digital watches and clocks as the most common for my entire life
shotgun_crab@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Why would the use of analog or digital clocks affect that? Quarter is 1/4th of an hour = 15 minutes. I don’t see the correlation and I can’t confirm it form experience either.
Quill7513@slrpnk.net 8 months ago
The way information is presented impacts how it is stored. If you look at a clock face and want to know what time it is it’s very easy to visualize the passage of time as fractional because the time is presented to you without numbers being the primary focus and instead divisions. Mentally it is easier for you then to grapple with time as a fractional division. However, if instead of presenting the day as being divides into 2 portions of 12 hours, themselves divided into 12 subdivisions, those then further divided into 12 subdivisions of the 5tha of those divisions, you presented it as a simple read out the passage of time feels more like a linear stream mostly indistinguishable.
How we present time changes how we think about time, which then changes how we describe time.
Man language is cool…
reverendsteveii@lemm.ee 8 months ago
what do you know about Marshall McLuhan? I’m hoping it’s not very much, because you seem to be in a really good place to receive what he has to teach right now. Google the phrase “the medium is the message” if you’d like to know more.
Theharpyeagle@lemmy.world 8 months ago
I think it’s because, visually, 3:15 puts the minute hand a quarter of the way around the clock face. Digital clocks don’t have a corresponding visual.
reverendsteveii@lemm.ee 8 months ago
I think it’s a rounding thing. Looking at an analog clock, you’ll see at a glance that the hand is about halfway around the circle but it takes an additional processing step to determine whether it’s 6:31 or 6:29. Looking at a digital clock, you’ll see that it’s 6:29 first and then it takes another step of processing to determine that 29 minutes is roughly halfway through the hour.
RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world 8 months ago
I generally avoided use of the quarter/half shorthand because people often say it with no context.
“What time is it?”
“Half past.”
Half past what? Sort of an assumption that the asker has a clue what hour it is, but if they knew, why would they ask the time?
I’m not sad to see the phrases go.
Metype@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Never actually heard anyone exclude the hour, it’s always “half past 3”, “quarter to 8”, “5 till 6”, etc
ipkpjersi@lemmy.ml 8 months ago
That’s why people usually say Half past 5, in my experience anyway.
BradleyUffner@lemmy.world 8 months ago
My childhood was filled with people doing that. It drove me nuts.
pruwybn@discuss.tchncs.de 8 months ago
Nowadays is easier just to say the precise time down to the minute.
Ultraviolet@lemmy.world 8 months ago
I still round, I’ll call 3:11 3:10 when the precision doesn’t matter.
tryptaminev@feddit.de 8 months ago
In a way it is a bit sad though. It gives a more rigid feeling to things. “about quarter past” would usually be something between :10 and :20. There is room for interpretation and time feels more available with less demanded precision.
Silentiea@lemm.ee 8 months ago
On the other hand, quarter inch and half mile and such are meant to be precise?
warm@kbin.earth 8 months ago
Strange, nothing has changed in my experience.
Bishma@discuss.tchncs.de 8 months ago
I was thinking the other day that I never hear the phrase “bottom of the hour” (meaning __:30) anymore.
nednobbins@lemm.ee 8 months ago
Laughs in Austrian.
The convention for (15-minute) fractional hours is to name the fraction of the time from the previous hour to the next one.
eg:
3:15 -> “viertel vier” = “quarter four”
3:30 -> “halb vier” (“hoiba viere” in dialekt) = “half four”
3:45 -> “dreiviertel vier” = “three quarters four”JohnEdwa@sopuli.xyz 8 months ago
In Finland we use:
3:15 viisitoista yli kolme = fifteen over three.
3:30 puoli neljä = half four. 3:45 viisitoista vaille neljä = fifteen short of four.skeezix@lemmy.world 8 months ago
In English, when they ask the time, we reply: Puolivälissä ohitti apinan perse. Because in English Puolivälissä rhymes with perse.
Holyhandgrenade@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Not in Norway lol. If you want to meet up at 11:20 you say “ti på halv tolv” meaning "ten minutes before half hour before twelve.
Yeah, it took me a while to wrap my head around it too.OlPatchy2Eyes@dormi.zone 8 months ago
In Lesotho (and I assume other developing countries that teach the English standard) they use those phrases because the 24-hour day and 60-minute hours are a foreign concept to many kids and their families.
Dagwood222@lemm.ee 8 months ago
A quarter to 1400 does sound a bit odd.
Wahots@pawb.social 8 months ago
24h time makes way more sense, especially when working with servers late at night. Hate 12 hour time’s annoying AM/PM issues, particularly when typing the time into server refreshes or dealing with 11pm - 12pm (am) slip ups.
gaylord_fartmaster@lemmy.world 8 months ago
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a server in a corporate environment running on anything other than 24-hour UTC time. That sounds like a nightmare.
wesker@lemmy.sdf.org 8 months ago
It does not make sense to convert digits to figure of speech, just for the fuck of it.
RandomVideos@programming.dev 8 months ago
I hear these phrases(the romanian version) much more often than an exact time
This is also how i was taught time in english
Contramuffin@lemmy.world 8 months ago
I’m not sure. Anecdotal evidence, but when I was little, we learned how to read analog clocks, and all the “half past whatever” terminology. Actually, I think most of us in my class at that time primarily used analog clocks. Even then, we never used those sorts of phrases. We would just round to the nearest 5 minutes if anyone asked.
That’s still what I do nowadays. Of course, there’s phones and computers now that can tell you the time, but if I want a physical clock, I prefer to get an analog one. And I still just round to the nearest 5 minutes.
In my interpretation, those phrases fell out of favor a long time ago
RobotToaster@mander.xyz 8 months ago
I rarely even bother using 12 hour time any more.
Zozano@lemy.lol 8 months ago
Since using AM and PM are essentially analogue standards, will people eventually stop saying “it’s two o’clock” when they mean “it’s fourteen”
PhlubbaDubba@lemm.ee 8 months ago
I don’t get why, it’s not like they aren’t learning fractions these days right?
Wrench@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Never saw the point. It doesn’t save syllables, and people unaccustomed to it get confused
Rentlar@lemmy.ca 8 months ago
My internal clock runs on a circle… So if I am guessing or saying roughly the time I will use “quarter to”, “ten past”, etc. If it’s an exact time I will say it to the minute, 6:43 etc.
Passerby6497@lemmy.world 8 months ago
I still hear people talk about the top and bottom of the hour all the time.
BaardFigur@lemmy.world 8 months ago
I haven’t noticed any changes
denast@lemm.ee 8 months ago
I think everybody puts too much emphasis on it being a strict generational thing while imo it’s mostly a force of habit.
I’m on my early 20s, and used to take around 10 seconds to read an analog clock. Fully digital mind. Bought an analog wrist watch this summer and merely 1-2 months into wearing it I started understanding it instantaneously and all of “half past” type phrases click immediately now.
daddyjones@lemmy.world 8 months ago
I’m 46 and for as long as I can remember I’ve used “half past” and “quarter to” etc. Even during the years when I used a digital watch I transferred to do this now often than not. I’ll use it with my Kuga as well and they understand and often do the same.
NegentropicBoy@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Dave Allen on the topic: www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QVPUIRGthI
WeLoveCastingSpellz@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 months ago
It’s because due to digital clocks it’s easier to just read the exact time which used to be lessconvenient. So. Reading digital clocks easy: Juat read what you see. Reading traditionap clocks easy: quarters and halves are a great way to simplify and fasten the time that it takes to tell what time it exactly is.
joel_feila@lemmy.world 8 months ago
I have almost never heard people use quarter or half to tell time.
superfes@lemmy.world 8 months ago
I use these all the time, my kids say “just tell me what time it is.”
wesker@lemmy.sdf.org 8 months ago
Seriously, though. It takes less brainpower and just about the same speech-time to just say the dang time.
humorlessrepost@lemmy.world 8 months ago
If your brain works in digital time, this is true.
Us olds have to translate the other direction.
warm@kbin.earth 8 months ago
I think there's bigger problems if you have to process the time. If you've never heard it in your life, maybe you'd stop and think, but it's honestly just something you learn and know, no thinking required.
It's like when people don't know 24 hour time, when it's something you've just grown up with, there's no thinking and then you are confused when you hear people have to think about it or "calculate".
pimento64@sopuli.xyz 8 months ago
I did the same thing with my parents, mostly because they’d just say “quarter after” but would never say any number. If you made a word cloud of everything I’ve ever said in my life, “after what” would be gigantic in the center with every other word tiny around the edges.
MIDItheKID@lemmy.world 8 months ago
This just triggered a deep memory from within me. My brother used to say “half past” when I asked him the time, and when I would say “half past what?” the response was always “Half past the monkeys ass, a quarter to his balls”
I still don’t know what it means or where it came from, but when I was 8 years old, it was hilarious.
PoopingCough@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Even worse than that imo is ‘quarter of’. I swear to god it’s been used to mean both before or after whatever hour they’re talking about
Feathercrown@lemmy.world 8 months ago
EVERY TIME
John_McMurray@lemmy.world 8 months ago
You’re failing at your most important job.
tigeruppercut@lemmy.zip 8 months ago
“It’s a third past the hour, ya dang kids!”