How the sunrise and sunset times would be affected by abolishing daylight saving time in the USA. Would you prefer to keep it or drop it? - eviltoast
  • pixelscript@lemm.ee
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    4 days ago

    A bill has passed both the US House of Representatives AND the US Senate to end the clock-changing, with overwhelming bipartisan support (I don’t believe either one of them even held a vote) and zero pork or poison pills…

    …but the two of them passed different bills that directly contradict one another. One formally ends DST and the other permanently adopts DST as the new standard time. Fucking incredible.

    I’m very much of the “IDGAF please just pick one and we will all cope” persuasion. So I’m unbothered which one passes. But it’s comical how, for once in a goddamn generation, we have something completely uncomplicated by party line politics, only to have it completely bungle up in congressional body power struggle politics instead.

    We just can’t have shit, can we?

    • quixotic120@lemmy.world
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      5 days ago

      This is by far the more important aspect

      Humans are routine oriented creatures, introducing an arbitrary hour deficit in sleep once a year has measurable and fairly profound effects on physical and mental health. Sure, it can be planned for, but circadian rhythms are hard to mess with for a lot of people and going to bed an hour earlier isn’t always an option

  • AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world
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    4 days ago

    Drop DST. We tried permanent DST in the '70s and everyone hated it so much we went back to switching the clocks rather than just dropping the whole mess.

    I’ve lived in states that don’t/ didn’t have DST. It’s much better for your sleep cycle.

  • mdurell@lemmy.world
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    4 days ago

    Pick one or the other. Or use UTC globally for all I care. Just stop changing the damn time!

  • reddig33@lemmy.world
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    5 days ago

    Spring forward and leave it there. In the fall it currently gets dark at 5 pm. It’s depressing to get off work and not have any daylight to enjoy and run errands. It’s also dangerous because tired drivers are coming home in a dark rush hour.

    • Droggelbecher@lemmy.world
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      5 days ago

      Word. I couldn’t care less whether the sun rises while I’m on the bus to work or while I’m getting my first coffee at work. Have to wake up in the dark either way. But whether or not i get that one hour of daylight after work makes a world of a difference in my mental health.

      • shani66@ani.social
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        5 days ago

        I work a dead end job with mediocre pay and no benefits but i will never leave because i get in when i get in and leave when i leave. Not having an insane focus on time makes this the best job I’ve ever had.

    • Peppycito@sh.itjust.works
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      5 days ago

      So, now the tired drivers are driving to work in the dark. I don’t see any solution making a real difference. There’s less day in the winter. Any solution at all will piss off 3/4s of the population.

      • theonlytruescotsman@sh.itjust.works
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        5 days ago

        There’s usually 8 hours of sunlight during the day on the shortest day of the year, a bit more or less depending on latitude, but not by a lot. Make those 8 hours 9-5. Congrats, you’ve solved the problem, the average day will have a bit to a lot of light before and after the standard work day.

    • Ricky Rigatoni@lemm.ee
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      5 days ago

      or maybe just go back to being done with work before sunset regardless of what time that was like our ancestors did for millions of years

  • jjjalljs@ttrpg.network
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    4 days ago

    I really want them to just pick one and stop changing the clocks twice a year. it’s a huge headache and bad for people’s health.

    Also as someone else said, just using UTC and knowing that “here in NY, we typically work from 14:00 to 22:00” would also be fine with me.

    • Klaymore@sh.itjust.works
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      4 days ago

      The issue with just using UTC is that the date changes in the middle of the day. Like in Seattle it would change from one day to the next at what is currently 4 PM.

      You try to plan an event for the 16th, and which physical day it’s in depends on whether it’s before or after an (ultimately arbitrary) cutoff time. You say “oh this happened yesterday” well was it a few hours ago before the date change or do you mean the previous physical day.

      Also weekdays would be messed up. You work “Monday to Friday” between the current 9 AM and 5 PM, but then how does that work when Monday starts at (what’s currently) 4 PM? Do you work between 4 and 5 since it’s during work hours on a Monday? And on Fridays do you stop working at 4 because after that it becomes Saturday? You say you’re busy all day Wednesday, but does that mean you’re suddenly available after 4 PM when the date changes?

      • jjjalljs@ttrpg.network
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        4 days ago

        This is a good point I hadn’t thought of. There are solutions but no elegant ones immediately come to mind.

    • webhead@lemmy.world
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      4 days ago

      That’s the same amount of effort or possibly more vs just having time zones. I keep seeing people express this sentiment and I don’t get how that’s better having to memorize something that basically just equates to time zones lol.

      Fuck DST though. Just put everyone back on standard time and leave it.

      • jjjalljs@ttrpg.network
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        4 days ago

        I would accept just using standard time.

        I think it would be less work to just be like “let’s meet at 15:00” and not have to worry about it on my end. I guess you could just pick a time zone. We do that at work- we just talk about eastern time and make everyone else do the conversion.

    • Wahots@pawb.social
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      4 days ago

      In winter, you burn all the daylight working and also commute in the dark. I get to enjoy the sunlight from an office skylight 30 ft away, then drive home in the dark for ~4 months under standard time.

      Why let work have all the daylight? It’s so depressing…

  • LovableSidekick@lemmy.world
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    4 days ago

    I’m in favor of abolishing it. This graphic doesn’t make it super clear but Daylight Saving Time gives millions of people more commutes in the dark per year than if we always used Standard Time. It’s a pretty significant difference.

    • RBWells@lemmy.world
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      4 days ago

      But you commute home in the dark with Standard time in the winter, I find that more dispiriting than dark mornings.

      • LovableSidekick@lemmy.world
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        19 hours ago

        It was when farm labor predominated in America, but today’s work schedules for the vast majority aren’t farmer schedules.

        • Professorozone@lemmy.world
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          18 hours ago

          Ok but people were saying with daylight savings they were going to work in the dark. I assume this is only for a short time after it happens because it seems backward otherwise. I have to say I really don’t pay much attention to it. It’s annoying when it transitions but then I’m used to it. Ultimately I don’t really care strongly either way. But if I had a choice, I would prefer to have as much daylight during daytime hours as possible.

  • Mango@lemmy.world
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    5 days ago

    So this chart doesn’t measure sunlight levels through the day, but whatever the maker has decided which color corresponds to “reasonable” based on arbitrary numbers… Who the fuck cares about which numbers are assigned to which parts of the day!!!

    • oktoberpaard@feddit.nl
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      4 days ago

      The reality is that most people work according to a fixed schedule, and the companies that they work for are not going to change that anytime soon. Opening hours of shops, banks, offices, etc don’t adjust to accommodate daylight savings, no matter how much you think those numbers are arbitrary.

      Add to that that many people set their alarm such that they will be in time for work, and they still want to sleep 7-8 hours the next night, so in effect their job dictates their waking hours and the arbitrary numbers that we give to hours dictate the amount of daylight that they get.

      • Mango@lemmy.world
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        4 days ago

        And they simply cannot cope with the fact that the sun might be different at different parts of the year? They really gotta revolve around the sun?

        • oktoberpaard@feddit.nl
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          4 days ago

          Wait, are you arguing for or against DST? DST solely exists because of the position of the sun at different times of the year. The downside is that everyone has to adjust their internal clock twice a year. If we just choose one timezone and be done with it, we can let the sun do its thing and follow our regular schedule throughout the whole year. If that’s what you’re saying, I agree. Then still, I’d pick the option that benefits most people in terms of daylight hours.

    • Sludgeyy@lemmy.world
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      5 days ago

      So this chart doesn’t measure sunlight levels through the day

      What do you mean by “sunlight levels”?

      Depending how north or south you are is how much much total light you are going to get. Shifting an hour does not add or subtract total sunlight time.

      The whole point of daylight savings time is to get the “arbitrary numbers” to line up to a daily schedule.

      This chart shows you how well the three systems would achieve getting you those “arbitrary” times.

      If the sun rose at 4 am and set at 1:30 pm. Sure, you could plan your whole day differently around that. Wake up at 4am instead of 7am. Go to bed at 8pm instead of 11pm. Work at 6 am instead of 9am, get off at 2pm instead of 5pm.

      Yes they are “arbitrary” but humans are not computers. Having to go to bed at 8pm to wake up at 4am is different in our minds than going to bed at 11pm and getting up at 7am. Still 8 hours of sleep but it is perceived quite differently.

        • Serinus@lemmy.world
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          5 days ago

          Because it’s easier to change the time than to change business and school hours.

          • shani66@ani.social
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            5 days ago

            … What? None of that would change if we didn’t fuck up our clocks twice a year

            • Serinus@lemmy.world
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              5 days ago

              I think there’s a misunderstanding here. The point is that we move our clocks forward one more time in spring for Daylight Savings Time, and then we never change them again.

              The difference between “ending” DST and making DST permanent is either keeping 4:30pm sunsets in winter or having the mornings be dark in the winter. Both are ways we stop changing our clocks.

              Personally, I prefer the later sunset.