comment: >
  
  I've noticed it's not that uncommon to see DoB entry drop-down menus let you jump around with keyboard number presses, i.e. allowing typing in the date. Always worth giving a try when coming across those menus that at first seem to force you to clumsily click and scroll around.
context: Drop downs are used because it forces everyone into the same format which is easier for their programming to deal with. >
  
  
  easier for their programming to deal with.
  
  This is generally a poor practice. You adapt your software to your users, not force them to adapt to your software. >
  
  First world problems. Be thankful you can even get on a computer. That goes for OP too. >
  
  I’m very thankful for the privileges I have, but that doesn’t mean I’ll excuse lazy web forms. >
  
  Boo hoo. Do it yourself then >
  
  I do, actually. >
  
  Well clearly not, if it's still an issue >
  
  While I would love to improve all the webforms on the internet, I can only control the ones that I own or build, and I do try to make them as frictionless and intuitive as possible/reasonable.
  If you don’t think usability or good webforms are an important enough problem, you go ahead and solve whatever problems you are interested in. >
  
  I'm clearly trolling now lmfao. Have a good day >
  
  Different options that are provided in UI is actually to maintain the format in the backend, if you manually type it you might cause a typo and also there are multiple format across the world like ddmmyyyyy or mmddyyyy to avoid any such confusion and what system understand the date options is in such way. >
  
  Even within the same format there are numerous ways a person can type it >
  
  If you were born July 1, 1990 would you type 7/1/1990 or 1/7/1990? Depending on where you live, it could be one or the other or maybe even a different way. >
  
  Even worse would be a person born between 2001 and 2012.
  Say, 9 October 2011.
  11/10/09  totally correct, but also totally wrong.  All depends on the convention of the person vs the expectation of the programmer >
  
  Ow my brain! I already get the day and month mixed up, don’t put the year there, please! >
  
  No because accuracy matters. You could type your birthdate in one of multiple ways. How would the developer know which one? Are you assuming they have time to check what each person enters? No, the developer is going to restrict you to one way to ensure minimal errors. >
  
  Then put the desired format above the text field. >
  
  And how confident are you that people will read that instruction and follow it correctly? >
  
  Yea no./ >
  
  yeah, fair, but the problem is that you can type your birth date in many ways and people often use odd ways, so the software needs to elaborate those many ways and fail sometimes, also there's the pathetic problem of imperial date and .... uummhh... metric? date? >
  
  Then put the desired format above the text field. >
  
  ...and people will goof up that as well >
  
  I bet more people pick a random date nowhere near their birthday than would type it wrong. >
  
  that's a different subject o_O >
  
  Yea but its why these things shouldn't be used. >
  
  I 100% agree. Downvoted. >
  
  Web usability/friendliness has improved a lot, but it still sucks. Date selection UI is notoriously sucky and tricky. >
  
  Not really. It's just the requirements that usually are overly specific. There are hundreds of different datepickers out there. Free ones. You don't even have to write the code yourself. >
  
  Plot twist, my birth year varies from 1901-1939 depending on how I attack that drop-down >
  
  I got you fam, it's triple "spin the wheels" time. >
  
  My favorite is one single numerical counter that forces you to press a button to increase the number once.
  19841128 button presses ftw... >
  
  The worst example I saw of this was a website that used a current month calendar to select your birthdate.  As a boomer, I had to manually click over 720 months to select my birthday.