Post #4023588
2026-07-23 00:11 UTC
But the real issue I have with their too-frequent use is that they discourage human beings from learning abstract conceptions about numbers and their relationships. People hooked on calculators, it seems to me, never actually learn any mathematics--even basic arithmetic seems like some weird strange magic to them. Folks seem to take a kind of sneakfaced pride in being bad at that shit in a way that nobody ever talks about literacy. 'Illiterate' has almost the weight of a slur in U.S. talk but it's funny to titter about having no head for figures.
I don't know what the answer is. I only suggest that there's a serious problem and that encouraging the use of mechanical calculation aids and ensuring their general availability might be a step towards alleviating the problem.
~Chara of Pnictogen
Replies (1)
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@memewarrior@hear-me.social 2026-07-23 01:09
@mxchara@seattle.pink @mxchara@seattle.pink I could never learn to use paper for math because I can't write in a straight line & writing hurts my hands. Thus, all that time was wasted which I could have spent learning how to do complex mental math which is what I actually needed. In the United States we rarely teach how to do math more complex than 12 times 12 in your head, but we do teach long division. Most people now have a calculator of some sort many times MORE often than a piece of paper. We need to learn to use calculators & our brains, nothing more. Unfortunately, I was barely taught how to use the latter.