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My generation was probably the last one to get told "You won't have a calculator in your pocket all the time" by our math teachers. (sh.itjust.works)
submitted 1 day ago by to c/showerthoughts@lemmy.world
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[–] 3 points 1 day ago (5 children)

I totally believe you that you have this memory!

But now take a step back and consider that each of those teachers you vividly remember saying the calculator phrase to you, must have had a mobile phone in their pockets, which at the time had exactly three apps presented prominently on the main screen: a calendar, an alarm clock and a calculator.
So why would they have said such a thing to you?

And still, you have that totally realistic and believable memory of it.

Like I also have the vivid, colourful, and absolutely undeniable realistic memory of the "Fruit of the Loom" logo having featured a cornucopia when we were wearing this brand in school.

I think the calculator remark memory being a Mandela-Effect artifact is not a totally unreasonable thing to suspect...

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  • [–] 5 points 1 day ago (1 child)

    had a mobile phone in their pockets, which at the time had exactly three apps

    At the time I was in school (90s to early 00s), cell phones were for making phone calls. There were no "apps." There was no texting, no camera, none of that. Smart phones came out the year I graduated high school. Before that, cell phones were not anywhere near as common as they are today. At a certain point, they were even a status symbol. My elementary school teachers definitely didn't have the money to afford something so fancy in the 90s.

    The closest thing I had as a kid was an "electronic organizer" with no phone/internet abilities. That had a calculator and a calendar, but it was more of a novelty and a toy - not something I relied on or would bring to school.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 day ago

    Commenter was referring to its youth in the early 00s, and by that time mobile phones were ubiquitous and thanks to carrier subsidizing also pretty affordable.

    The mentioned (preinstalled) app functions already came up during the switch away from simple text based displays in the second half of the 90s (as well as the texting you mentioned).

    You are partly right, though, before that time items where more of a "single purpose" type.
    But even then, miniaturization and mass-production had already rendered the exact "You won't have a calculator in your pocket all the time" phrase nonsensical, with everybody typically having lying around several of the free tiny giveaway solar-powered calculators in bags and drawers.

    I would guess that the original phrases the potential collective false memory is based upon, were something more like "you won't be able to use a calculator in every situation", which then got transmogrified over time by social reinforcement to the plausible sounding and much more exciting "You won't have a calculator in your pocket all the time" trope.

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  • [–] 4 points 1 day ago

    Eh, "you're not always going to have your phone on you" was another thing that was said, and plenty of us now have jobs where we can't have/use a cell phone while working, so it's turned out to be pretty apt.

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