Poll: Can you tell time on a "regular" clock?

[RedEyesBlackGamer]

Yes, I can.

I can read these easy as pie. I prefer them to digital.

The model that my high school had everywhere.
Are there people who can't?

 

[Goofguy]

Uh yeah, I can tell the time off an analog clock with no problems. In fact, I prefer it that way. It would surprise me to meet people in their teens and 20s who can't tell time this way, it just seems so... fundamental.

 

[GLo Jones]

I prefer analogue, and don't understand people that say they have to 'work out what the time is' looking at them. It's 24hr digital clocks that take me an extra second to calculate.

Also:

It's 83 past 2

If I look at that any longer, my head might explode.

 

[RastaBadger]

I can read a normal clock and I can read a normal clock backwards. I still don't know why I have a backwards clock but it confuses the hell out of guests.

 

[Himmelgeher]

Don't they teach everybody in second grade? I went to an absolutely awful school district in the absolutely awful state of Arizona and they still taught us that. So yes, me and everybody I've ever met (with the exception of children who haven't gone to second grade) can read regular clocks. That said I still prefer digital clocks unless it's on a watch. Analogue watch's are a lot easier to read for some reason.

 

[Slangeveld]

Sure I can. But if it's one of those clocks without numbers (no 1-12), it will take me a while to process which one its at.

 

[DistinctlyBenign]

I wear a watch that doesn't even have numbers on it. It just has hands and a point to mark where the 12 should be.

So I'd say yeah.

And I can't say I've ever met anyone older than like, 8 who can't, really.

 

[Sigilis]

Analog clocks are an anachronism as far as I'm concerned. I never see them, so I don't ever have to use them. My ability to read them is stunted from disuse.

 

[lolmynamewastaken]

it takes abit more of a pause for me as im special, but i can do it so long as there are numbers, no numbers and i just look at it and get lost.

 

[MikailCaboose]

It scares me that this is a thing, not being able to read time off of a analog clock.
Don't they teach anything at schools anymore ?

New tech tends to override older tech. Like analog vs. digital. Although I've still found that people who can't read an analog clock to be the but of jokes, since I never really found it that difficult. All you need to be able to do is count and multiply by fives.

 

[Moonlight Butterfly]

Just a question where are you from OP? most of the clocks where I live in britain are analogue the only digital clocks you see are alarm clocks or retro watches.

I also wonder if we're learning less because it's so easy to access the information when needed, there's no feeling of needing to know it in advance.

But surely that should also have the effect of learning more, because you have easier access to information. If I am puzzled about what someone is referring to I google it and learn what it is whereas before I would have to rely on them taking the time to tell me or going to a library to try and find it in a hideously outdated book (my biggest problem with libraries). As a history graduate I think the the internet is really exciting for keeping up to date with research whereas before you would have to wait until a historian published a book. In which time the information could become outdated and erroneous.

It really is good for changable information as long as you double check sources.

 

[RootBrewski]

I can read analogue, but I prefer digital since I use the 24 hour clock.

 

[Gabanuka]

I struggle more with digital then analogue genrally.

 

[Caulk]

I actually prefer them to digital ones, since i can tell the time just by the shape of the clock without taking the extra 1/4 seconds to read it, or like 5 seconds when i just woke up and my eyes sight is a bit blurry

 

[synobal]

PFT I can tell time using a sun dial! that said the time on the sun dial has no correlation to the actual time we use.

 

[Korolev]

The last time I met someone who couldn't read an analogue clock was when I was in 4th Grade, and he was considered a bit.... slow. Reading an analogue clock is easy as pie - the only excuse anyone would have for not being able to read an analogue clock is illiteracy.

 

[Museli]

Analogue, digital, binary, it's all good

 

[NezumiiroKitsune]

Yes, and it takes no appreciable amount of time longer. I also use terminology like quarter to and quarter past, however I am not annoyed when someone gives me the time and says something like "It's five forty-five". However I get a bit annoyed when I'm told the time in a backward amalgamation of those two, such as: "It's forty past six".

I have a friend who can't in a reasonable amount of time, by the way. He has to, in his words, "work it out". I don't understand the difficulty, but he is also dyslexic. How that could affect clock face reading baffles me.

 

[Voxgizer]

After all my days in school as a kid and a number of detentions, I learned very quickly.

 

[Gincairn]

The only analogue clock I ever had trouble reading was a "left-handed" clock, this is where the numbers run in the opposite direction to a standard analogue clock (so for example 3 is on the left and 9 is on the right)

Personally though, I prefer my binary watch for time telling as 9 times out of 10 in confuses those that look at it.