I feel like an alarm clocks are antiquated. Why does one need to know how to read an analog clock these days?
Many other types of indicators are still round-dial. Having a basic facility for equating the angle of the pointer to whatever value, and being able to visually estimate the angle between what you see and what you’re wishing to see, and how that translates to/from whatever data value is displayed is a valuable meta-skill in itself.
Analog clock reading is a natural way for kids to acquire that skill at a young age when things like oil pressure or fuel quantity are pretty meaningless in their lives.
But clock reading for the purpose of clock reading? Not really much need as a basic life skill. Sorta like cursive, it’s obsolete, but not so obsolete as e.g. cuneiform writing where there’s zero call for any knowledge whatsoever.
IMO it’d be best if they could decode an analog clock, even if it took a few seconds of concentrated effort akin to counting on their fingers. Because in some places and times that may be the only timepiece available.
Different question for you …
Your title says read an “analog clock”. Your OP then says “alarm clock” then “analog clock”.
What do alarm clocks have to do with analog vs digital? Or are you making a second assertion that alarm clocks as time-based alarms are obsolete too, be they analog or be they digital?
Our future fighter pilots will be doomed.
How often is such a skill used these days?
I’m using talk to text.
It gets it wrong sometimes. The frustrating part is it’s almost impossible to proofread the title If it’s longer than the allotted space.
I’m just talking about analog clocks here. Nothing to do with alarm clocks.
The speedo & tach in my car are that shape. Despite just being graphics on a computer screen. The coolant temp, fuel guage, and a couple others are graphics of quadrant arcs.
You do still see round-dial presentations on some websites or devices. Free versus used space on a disk drive, etc.
But your overall point that a “mercury thermometer” extending / retracting linear analog indicator plus a digital value is rapidly becoming the norm for lots of types of electronic displays.
There are a lot of obsolete or little used systems that one needs to know just to be culturally literate (Roman numerals, cursive script, military time, etc) and learning to read an analog clock is among the easiest of those skills.
I graduated high school in 1984. At the time, slide rules were already obsolete and still my high school physics teacher required us to learn how to use them, partly because doing so required us to read scales, which is a useful skill. (And not just in the sciences. If you’re a carpenter, for instance, you’re reading tape measures all day long.) For the same reason, learning to read analog clocks is a useful skill, even in this day and age.
But you can still get the skills you are referring to from reading actual scales.
I also don’t see how not being able to read an analog clock is going to diminish one’s quality of life.
You don’t need to look up when you’re standing on Westminster Bridge, either, but you’d probably want to.
I think drawing a straight line between basic competencies and quality of life is a bit of a red herring. To use an extreme example, not being able to read or write can be compensated for by using screen readers and talk to text. Sure, they make mistakes but how does that diminish one’s quality of life? For that matter, one can use a smart phone to set reminders for anything that might require reading any kind of clock, digital or analog. Perfect example is anyone who has been blind since birth.
They still exists almost everywhere.
Not being able to read one would be like being in a foreign country where you couldn’t read the language.
It’s an easy skill to aquire too. If I ran into an adult who couldn’t read an analog clock I’d consider them dimwitted.
They exist everywhere? Like where?
About the only time I see them is when they are being used for aesthetic purposes. And not for any important display of information.
Um, just about every classroom in America.
I can’t imagine how baffling our system of keeping time would be for someone unfamiliar with analog clocks. Like why aren’t digital clocks in decimal like every other digital device we use?
Data point of one but my son’s school has digital clocks on the wall of every room and hallway.
When was the last time you were in a classroom? Because it ain’t like that here.
They teach fractions in school still. Pretty sure it’s not that hard to comprehend for someone who hasn’t ever read and an analog clock.
Do you feel it is important for younger generations to be able to read fractions?
I work at a university and I’m in a classroom at least once a week. Schools tend to get used for very long periods of time, so most of the schools in my area were built 40 or more years ago and are still equipped with the original clocks. I suppose replacing them with digital wall clocks might be desirable, but is it a necessary expenditure when many teachers have trouble sourcing basic school supplies?