I think anyone who has worked HR knows why you ask for references.
Because some people literally list their mother.
Because others list previous employers or even best friends who have nothing nice to say about them.
And because some people, having really thought it through and providing the best reference they can come up with, list their buddy Steve who will get on the phone and say something like:
“Jack? Great fuckin’ guy man. Works hard and parties hard, ya know? Just keep his psycho ex away from the job site bro, that bitch is crazy.”
You can weed these people out without wasting time. Half of what a job interview is about is seeing if people have a good head on their shoulders. If you pick a bad reference or lack a good reference and don’t even have the brains to have someone lie for you, it’s probably the tip of the iceberg with your bad choices.
Of course the kids don’t know how to read them. Kids rarely encounter analog clocks and when they do, they have several digital clocks within arms length. Most people wouldn’t reach for a slide rule when they have a calculator.
And to be fair, analog clocks are objectively worse than digital clocks in every way aside from aesthetics.