# Have you noticed that younger people seem slower to tell time from "traditional" clock faces? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 29, 2025, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-noticed-that-younger-people-seem-slower-to-tell-time-from-traditional-clock-faces/1024391 "2025-10-29T15:25:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2025, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-noticed-that-younger-people-seem-slower-to-tell-time-from-traditional-clock-faces/1024391/41 "2025-10-30T00:15:12Z")
If you ask me anything about the time, I immediately picture an analogue clock face. Even looking at digital time, I equate it to a clock face simultaneously. It’s just how I think of time. I also imagine a wall calendar when picturing a year progressing. ---
**Author:** ![Dereknocue67](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/6de8d8/32.png) [@Dereknocue67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dereknocue67)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2025, 8:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-noticed-that-younger-people-seem-slower-to-tell-time-from-traditional-clock-faces/1024391/42 "2025-10-30T08:05:01Z")
As a former Air Traffic Controller, we couldn’t function as well without referencing analog clocks. You cannot use a digital clock reference to advise the pilot of one aircraft that another one was approaching so we transmit something like, “Traffic at 2 o’clock. 5 miles.” We’d have to use something like, “Traffic at your 040 position. 5 miles.” Might work but could be more confusing. ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2025, 11:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-noticed-that-younger-people-seem-slower-to-tell-time-from-traditional-clock-faces/1024391/43 "2025-10-30T11:00:03Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > When I was a kid first learning to tell time I thought it was stupid that the hour hand, the one representing big amounts, was the little hand, while the minute hand (and second hand if present) that represented little amounts was big(ger). And the “second hand” is actually the _third_ hand! ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2025, 11:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-noticed-that-younger-people-seem-slower-to-tell-time-from-traditional-clock-faces/1024391/44 "2025-10-30T11:11:23Z")
> [@Dereknocue67](#): > > As a former Air Traffic Controller, we couldn’t function as well without referencing analog clocks. You cannot use a digital clock reference to advise the pilot of one aircraft that another one was approaching so we transmit something like, “Traffic at 2 o’clock. 5 miles.” We’d have to use something like, “Traffic at your 040 position. 5 miles.” Might work but could be more confusing. I’ve been wondering for a while if people will eventually turn to some alternative to the “o’clock” system for describing relative orientation, as analog clocks fall further and further out of people’s experience. Or if it will survive indefinitely as a cultural fossil, with people of the future being asked trivia questions like _“what did something being at 2 o’clock’ originally refer to?”._ ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2025, 11:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-noticed-that-younger-people-seem-slower-to-tell-time-from-traditional-clock-faces/1024391/45 "2025-10-30T11:19:59Z")
Much like “dialing a phone”, I suspect the term will outlast the device for a century or two. But I’ve certainly wondered the same thing as you’ve asked. Which brings up an interesting side question: For those of you young enough to have never used a round-dial telephone, or those who have frequent exposure to the current under-20 crowd, what term do they use for initiating a phone call where they need to input the number, not just tap an existing contact or on-screen link? ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2025, 11:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-noticed-that-younger-people-seem-slower-to-tell-time-from-traditional-clock-faces/1024391/46 "2025-10-30T11:59:23Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > initiating a phone call "I need to call… " Usually said with a great deal of displeasure, as they prefer text and bring about to get stuff done on a web page. And why would they be typing in numbers? You can tap the number on-screen and your phone knows what to do with it. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2025, 12:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-noticed-that-younger-people-seem-slower-to-tell-time-from-traditional-clock-faces/1024391/47 "2025-10-30T12:11:53Z")
Once in awhile you get the number from some offline source and need to tap the digits yourself. What do they call that part of the process of initiating a phone call? Besides “eye-rollingly primitive”? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2025, 12:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-noticed-that-younger-people-seem-slower-to-tell-time-from-traditional-clock-faces/1024391/48 "2025-10-30T12:24:57Z")
I can’t remember the last time i did that. _I_ don’t need a word for it. Seriously, in what context would you do that? If it was any entity i might need to call more than once, I’d type the numbers into my contacts app, not into my phone app. But I’ll ask if you like. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2025, 12:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-noticed-that-younger-people-seem-slower-to-tell-time-from-traditional-clock-faces/1024391/49 "2025-10-30T12:29:27Z")
I’m often reading a number on the screen of my tablet/PC and wanting to call it on my phone. So I peck the numbers into the phone’s phone app the tap the [initiate call] button. If I’m going to use the number later, then after the call I save that on the phone as a contact, filling in name, etc., on some mix of the phone or the tablet/PC once they sync across. Similarly when I see a phone number on a sign IRL or on the side of a truck. Or I meet somebody and we’re wanting to exchange numbers. One of needs to keystroke the other’s number into some app. Often the phone app is the easiest of the choices. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2025, 12:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-noticed-that-younger-people-seem-slower-to-tell-time-from-traditional-clock-faces/1024391/50 "2025-10-30T12:37:14Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > I’m often reading a number on the screen of my tablet/PC and wanting to call it on my phone. Why not just look up the number on you phone if you plan to use it on your phone? > [@LSLGuy](#): > > Or I meet somebody and we’re wanting to exchange numbers I hand them my phone with the contact app open, and ask them to enter their data. Then i text them, “this is Puzzlegal”, so they can pop my info into their contact app. I’ve never called a number i got from a sign. Who are you calling? The slimy lawyers who advertise on billboards? ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2025, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-noticed-that-younger-people-seem-slower-to-tell-time-from-traditional-clock-faces/1024391/51 "2025-10-30T12:40:25Z")
> [@puzzlegal](#): > > I can’t remember the last time i did that. _I_ don’t need a word for it. Actually, sometimes i look up a number on my phone and then want to actually place the call with my landline. So i need to peck in the digits. But my younger friends don’t have landlines. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2025, 12:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-noticed-that-younger-people-seem-slower-to-tell-time-from-traditional-clock-faces/1024391/52 "2025-10-30T12:43:02Z")
> [@puzzlegal](#): > > I can’t remember the last time i did that. _I_ don’t need a word for it. > > Seriously, in what context would you do that? I still use an old landline phone and have to punch in the number every time. If it even has a memory function I don’t know how to use it. Which by the way I always used to hear it described; “punch in the number”. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2025, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-noticed-that-younger-people-seem-slower-to-tell-time-from-traditional-clock-faces/1024391/53 "2025-10-30T13:01:29Z")
Yeah, manually “dialing” makes sense in the context of a land line. The other thing i wanted to mention is that in addition to limited-access apps like FaceTime and zoom, totally free apps like signal and discord support voice calls, and are agnostic as to hardware. (You can use your phone, or your desktop, or most anything else with a Wi-Fi connection.) When i “call” my son these days, it’s usually on discord, not on a “phone”. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2025, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-noticed-that-younger-people-seem-slower-to-tell-time-from-traditional-clock-faces/1024391/54 "2025-10-30T13:37:58Z")
> [@puzzlegal](#): > > Why not just look up the number on you phone if you plan to use it on your phone? I do as much as possible on a big screen w real keyboard. Usually these sorts of calls are a serendipity. I wasn’t intending to phone until I found their website or email or whatever didn’t answer a question I need answered. > [@puzzlegal](#): > > I hand them my phone with the contact app open, and ask them to enter their data. Then i text them, “this is Puzzlegal”, so they can pop my info into their contact app I’m sorta the same. More often txt than phone. Somebody keystokes a number into somebody’s txt app and hits send. Now we both have record of both numbers and can store them wherever later. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2025, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-noticed-that-younger-people-seem-slower-to-tell-time-from-traditional-clock-faces/1024391/55 "2025-10-30T13:40:09Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > I do as much as possible on a big screen w real keyboard. That might be because of your age. You are probably a little far sighted and didn’t grow up fluent on a phone’s keyboard. ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2025, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-noticed-that-younger-people-seem-slower-to-tell-time-from-traditional-clock-faces/1024391/56 "2025-10-30T13:42:51Z")
> [@puzzlegal](#): > > Yeah, manually “dialing” makes sense in the context of a land line. Also, it seems to me you would have to mod your 1930s Bakelite dial phone a bit to make it work with anything _other_ than an land line… ---
**Author:** ![doreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/858c86/32.png) [@doreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doreen)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2025, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-noticed-that-younger-people-seem-slower-to-tell-time-from-traditional-clock-faces/1024391/57 "2025-10-30T14:58:20Z")
I’ve used a rotary phone and I don’t think my thirty-something kids have ever seen one but I don’t think any of us have ever used the phrase “dialing a phone” or anything similar. I’ve never needed to refer to the act of inputting the number separately from making a call. The closest would be referring to a “dial tone” at a time when even the landlines were push-button. Which reminds me - even as rotary phones became obsolete, it was ( and is) still called a "dial tone ". ---
**Author:** ![SCAdian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scadian/32/3292_2.png) [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2025, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-noticed-that-younger-people-seem-slower-to-tell-time-from-traditional-clock-faces/1024391/58 "2025-10-30T16:24:16Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > If _I_ was going to reinvent analog clocks, I’d have done it the other way: Start with a long fat hand for hours. Pointing at 12 numbers arranged around the circumference as now. When chronography advanced to the point minutes became relevant, add a shorter, thinner minute hand. Ditto when seconds eventually became relevant: add another even shorter even thinner had for that. It’s easy to tell if the short hand is pointing, say, between ‘2’ and ‘3’. So it’s fine for the hours. It’s not easy to tell which of the four marks between ‘2’ and ‘3’ the short hand is pointing at; the long hand, with its tip closer to the marks, is much better for the minutes. > [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](#): > > And the “second hand” is actually the _third_ hand! You are confused because the word ‘second’ has two different meanings ---
**Author:** ![Reply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reply/32/15952_2.png) [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2025, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-noticed-that-younger-people-seem-slower-to-tell-time-from-traditional-clock-faces/1024391/59 "2025-10-30T21:34:27Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > what term do they use for initiating a phone call where they need to input the number, not just tap an existing contact or on-screen link? I’m not young, but some of my classmates were. They just “put in” their number or otherwise “add” it. Usually they hand you the phone and have you type it in. For your other use case of looking something up on a computer and then adding that to your phone… well, first of all, I think computers are generally much less popular now than in our era. Everyone has a phone but not everyone has (or knows or cares to use) a computer to look things up. In the event that they do use a computer, you can usually just click the telephone number and it’ll call that number right on your phone. (If your browser and phone are both Google or Apple, and you’re signed in to both, tel:// links and things that look like phone numbers can be automatically forwarded to a phone on the same account). The whole “look it up on your computer and manually type it into your phone” thing is probably an old people thing. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2025, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-noticed-that-younger-people-seem-slower-to-tell-time-from-traditional-clock-faces/1024391/60 "2025-10-30T22:40:35Z")
> [@Reply](#): > > thing is probably an old people thing. I resemble that remark! 😉 Android phone w all Google apps vs. all Windows / MS ecosystem on PC. File, mail, & contact sync, but not much else. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-noticed-that-younger-people-seem-slower-to-tell-time-from-traditional-clock-faces/1024391.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-noticed-that-younger-people-seem-slower-to-tell-time-from-traditional-clock-faces/1024391.md?page=4)