A good deal of IT work, too

TheOneWithTheHair@lemmy.world to Lemmy Shitpost@lemmy.world – 1254 points –
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I'm old enough that when I was in school, teachers were telling us that we'd never have calculators in our pockets wherever we'd go.

I'm that old, too. Can you imagine a student back then saying, "I'll have a calculator, flashlight, camera, video recorder, music collection, and games to pass the times I have to wait on others."

"Oh yeah and it's also a phone"

"Oh yeah and it's also a computer that's more powerful than any computer you've ever laid eyes on that has access to an unimaginable wealth of human knowledge via a wireless connection to the Internet."

I listened recently to somebody on a podcast saying that only psychos or close family would dial you in this day and age... And I kinda agree.

Or medical providers, professional contacts, service providers ...

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I'm only 27 and I was lucky enough to hear that one, no Wikipedia and no Google.

Wikipedia was started in 2001, and Google in 1998. Who was saying this to you when you were 2?

The platforms existing doesn't mean they have been as wide spread as they are today

They said "no Google and no Wikipedia," not "Google and Wikipedia were not as widespread as they are today"

I feel like you misread. I think they meant Wikipedia and google not allowed for sources.

Why would you assume they'd just randomly change the topic like that?

The subject became “stupid shit teachers say that is not applicable in the real world” and in that context the subject never changed. They were probably told “you won’t have a calculator in your pocket all the time” as well as “don’t using the internet(google and Wikipedia) as sources” which was very common to be told around the time when they would have been in school. I’m not attacking you I just think you misunderstood as everyone is possible of doing.

Perhaps you should entertain the idea that you misunderstood. I suppose it's also possible that OC is just not very good at expressing themselves.

Maybe they aren’t good at expressing themselves but it makes sense with my point of view where as taking your viewpoint it’s just nonsense. Maybe they had a point of view where it makes sense. Where they are coming from it makes the comment make sense where if we follow yours we just think everyone else is an idiot with no room for fault of your own. That’s fine if you are always right but you are not, as with everyone.

People say nonsense on the Internet all the time. It's the safest assumption.

Yeah, I've been reading your replies.

Lol. Your back and forth was entertaining. I expressed what I intended to, teachers were still doing the whole "don't trust everything you read" and "you won't have a calculator in your pocket" when I was at school.

Aww snookums, I was only providing an anecdote to the comment I replied too, no need to get bent out of shape over it. And fyi teachers were still telling us that we wouldn't always have calculators when I was 16 doing my GCSEs and learning algebra and compound interest for an exam where we had two papers with calculators used and one where we weren't allowed calculators.

This wasn't all that long ago though. I'm only in my 30's and was told this in elementary school in the 90's and early 2000's. The iPhone was first released only 16 years ago.

I was told this, too, but when I got to Functions and Analytical Geometry, they started suggesting calculators. Now kids have laptops, gees.

Thats a stupid statement in any year after the “pocket calculator” was available in the 70s

Not really. The first ones were quite expensive, and it was uncommon to have one on your person at all times like we now do with smartphones.

Yes really, if your job requires lots of calculations you'd be stupid not to have one, even back when they were expensive.

Every machinist I know, even the crusty old ones, carry a calculator in their pocket. It's indispensable. Why wouldn't you carry one if you need it all the time?

Pretty sure the teacher wasn't assuming that every single child in class was going to be a machinist.

In fact, most people aren't machinists.

And yet my point stands: if you need to do a lot of calculations at your job, you'd be stupid not to have a calculator in your pocket. And if you don't, then the time it takes to find a calculator will be negligible.

OK? That's not the point.

Uh what, that's literally the point lol. The "you won't have a calculator" has been complete and utter bullshit for literally over half a century.

Bro, smartphones haven't even existed for 20 years

You're talking as if everybody was carrying around pocket calculators the day they were invented

No actually I literally specified people whose jobs require doing a lot of calculations lmao

If your job required lots of calculations, and you heard about this fancy new thing called a pocket calculator, wouldn't you go out and buy one?

Of course. But, again, that's not everyone. Not everyone went out and bought pocket calculators and carried them around everywhere.

It's even more stupid when it's the same class that required the purchase of a TI-85 to complete the course.

how big are your pockets cmon

There was a period of time when I wore only carpenter jeans so I could fit my TI-83 in my pocket and I'm still not ashamed

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