Why do people get weirded out when they ask me a question regarding time and I give an exact answer?

I’d be the one wierded out.

I’m sure it’s because they realize, in one fell swoop, that they’re dealing with a perfectionist who knows no boundaries.

I’m curious: what do you answer when someone asks, “how’re ya doin?”?

It does sound a little asperger-ish to be so focused on time.

I know exactly what you’re talking about. My friends get like that when I tell them the exact date something we did happened. They would rather I just said “a few months ago” but if I remember the date, I say it. It’s become kind of a joke with us. I also say specific times as well. I think in terms of numbers a lot of the time; I see numbers as having inherent color for crying out loud. I’ve also been able to guess the time exactly or almost exactly without having looked at a clock in a long time.

I sometimes tell people I’ll be at their house in 12 or 13 minutes. Because it’s not going to take fifteen and it takes longer than ten. But people think its weird. Just cause its out of the ordinary I suppose.

Because most people realize when asked for a time the person is uninterested in the precise time but wants to know a general answer.

@hug_of_war

But you’re still getting a perfectly good answer that satisfies your question.

@DominicX so? what is your point? No need to be a smartass. I simply answered this question as I saw fit. Nowhere did I say it wasn’t acceptable to answer a precise time, I implied it’s unnecesary. Nothing else.

@hug_of_war I’m not interested in continuing this, but nowhere was I being a smartass. But when people are calling it Asperger’s like, “so focused”, and you said “most people realize” it made it seem like it’s “common sense” to not give an exact answer.

Of course, my friends don’t act weirded out as much as they laugh and think it’s awesome that I can remember dates like that.

To answer the question in the poll: most people don’t notice exact time or care about exact time and dates. I don’t really know why I remember things like that or notice them, but certain people just do and to them it’s normal, whereas other people who think in terms of “a couple weeks ago” or “around ten” are going to find it different and maybe odd.

I’m the same way, and it does weird people out. I guess many people don’t have the greatest sense of time.

I often try to gauge how good people’s sense of time is. For instance, I have a few friends who can never estimate how long things will take. If they say they’ll meet me somewhere in 20 mins, I show up in around 45 mins, and I’m still usually a bit early. Everybody’s different.

I’m one who wants to know the exact date or time if I ask. My mother’s good at saying “it’s about 6 o’clock” if I ask what time it is when it’s really 6:37. Very annoying.

you’re perfectly sane! that is the time after all!

Being a smart ass (which @DominicX is assuredly not) is to assume that “to weird” is a verb. I weird, you weird, we weird, we will weird, we will have been weirded out…an astonishing number of possibilitites, all odd.

I have experienced this. Why not just give an exact answer instead of rounding things off? It annoys me that most people will just round it.

My son always wants to know the precise time, and gets upset if I try to say 15 minutes to 11 instead of 10:45. Thus, I never mind if someone gives the precise time or date. I am used to living with my son’s demands.

In most cases, it doesn’t matter whether I get the precise time or the time is rounded off, but because of my son I appreciate an exact number.

Unless you are wearing an atomic clock, you will never be truly accurate.

You guys got all the time genes I was supposed to get. I can’t remember if something happened 6 months ago or 2 years ago. I have been known to forget my own anaversary and I even forgot one of my daughters birthday twice and I remember at least once forgetting my husbands birthday.
Maybe I should blame it on growing up in the 70’s. I did a lot of damage to my brain cells.

@PapaLeo I am far from being a perfectionist. I’m just pointing out that if I happen to know the exact time, like in my example where I had just checked the time myself, I would give the exact time. I am much more like @Judi I’m horrible with dates, anniversaries and stuff like that. In fact regarding the time telling thing, most often I find myself guilty of checking the time, and then 3 seconds later I have no idea what time it is.

Edit: @PapaLeo I’m just fine, thanks for asking! How are you doin’?

Could it be mostly older people who get freaked out? (like those of us who learned to tell time before digital clocks?)

I haven’t seen people react strangely to perfectly reasonable answers. If I happen to know it’s 9:37, I say it’s 9:37. (I usually say “My watch says it’s 9:37.”) The customary response I get to that is “thanks.” If someone freaked out over an answer like that, I’d think there was something wrong with them.

@Judi Many of us who learned to tell time with an hour glass have transitioned to digital very successfully! LOL

I constantly check my watch, and do sort of the same thing. If someone asks me for the time, i will tell them that it is 2::57.35 Some people call me stupid for including the seconds, but i just do and don’t know hwy.

you said “most people realize” it made it seem like it’s “common sense” to not give an exact answer.

it is. it’s common sense in the way that you could more accurately call it social protocol. it’s a little like passing people. In the states you pass people on the right just like driving on the right side of the street. There’s no reason you couldn’t pass* people on the left but social protocol dictates that given the two choices and all else being equal passing on the right is the default. Personally I don’t find exact time’s weird. oh sure I may sometimes use relatives terms “Half past 3” “Quarter till noon” but I would never find anything out of the ordinary with someone giving me the exact time. quite the contrary I would be grateful. When I say quarter past. I literally mean it’s 1:15 or I would use more deliberate times.

You’re asking why people are weirded out? because you’re speaking in a manner which is atypical. It’s not wrong, it’s not rude. to be honest it’s probably not even all that uncommon but it’s atypical. If someone tells you it’s “Oh eight hundred hours” you assume they’re militarily related because it’s atypical and it might even weird you out.

I’m more interested in how you know people are weirded out. Time is such a minor thing that unless you’re reporting it in a 24 mode quite frankly I fail to see why anyone would even mention it. By the time I’ve opened my mouth to say something the moment of awkwardness has long gone. it’s only weird for maybe 7–10 milliseconds. If noone has actually called you weird for your time relational speech then maybe you’re making a bigger deal over this than you should be.. kinda like me and this ‘far too long’ post.

*passing in this case meaning I’m coming one way and you’re coming the other.

Well, when I tell folks, Hey, I was born in the morning, but it wasn’t yesterday morning. I get strange looks too. Probably not for the same reason you do, though.

I’m willing to wager all the lint in my pockets that if I was traveling from california to washington and told you I was headed “down there”, you’d correct me. Sometimes I say it deliberately to pinpoint the perfectionists so as to steer clear.

@NaturalMineralWater I am a perfectionist about map directions. When someone says they are going up to Peoria, I have to correct them, since Peoria is South of here. Up is North and down is South on the map. There can be no going up when going south, unlesss you are in another hemisphere.

People find my directional perfectionism a bit annoying.

@evelyns_pet_zebra What if I live at the bottom of a hill that I must pass to get to Washington? xD

It’s one of my peeves when people do that.. not because they are incorrect.. but because it really doesn’t bloody matter if it’s up or down.

@NaturalMineralWater Hills, mountains, valleys, rivers, bluffs, etc., doesn’t matter, we are talking cardinal points on the map, not topography.

While it doesn’t bloody matter to you, it matters to me. see, I told you that my directional madness was annoying. :^)

Usually, rounding to the nearest year suffices for my purposes.

@evelyns_pet_zebra Why does it matter? And no… I’m not a floosy bloke who didn’t understand that you meant cardinal directions.. lol

bah. we’re getting off topic. my bad. wait.. does it also annoy you when people don’t capitalize or when they speel thngs increctly ? just out ouf ceerioschity

(It’s not the spelling, it’s the “my bad,” that raises my hackles.)

@NaturalMineralWater It matters to me because I am a bit anal retentive about directions. All those years of driving a truck is probably the cause of it, or perhaps, just perhaps, I find offense in people with no sense of direction and no desire to think in clear directional terminology. Just because it gets on my nerves should have no bearing with you, unless you want me to be more like you and less like me.

As for incorrect speeling, whell, I can deel with that, no bigg deel, ya know?

@gailcalled, yeah, that my bad thing is extremely annoying.

@evelyns_pet_zebra and @gailcalled Lol. It’s agreed then. I annoy you just as much as you annoy me. XD I’m glad we had this little talk.