this post was submitted on 16 Aug 2024
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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.
My watch frequently (daily but only if I'm sleeping with it, for some reason) updates itself via radio. It's generally accurate to a second or maybe even half a second. But the main reason, It's easier to tell exactly what the time is in seconds when it's digital compared to a fast spinning stick. Not that it really matters, I just like it.
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.
The point is the instinct to check phone for the time is so strong that they're not looking around for clocks.
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.
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.