Daylight Savings Time Is Causing Loads of Groans After Clocks Spring Ahead

Daylight savings has social media sounding cranky on Sunday morning. The 'spring ahead' phenomenon [...]

By Michael Hein

Daylight savings has social media sounding cranky on Sunday morning. The "spring ahead" phenomenon led a lot of people to complain when their alarms went off this weekend. Even those that slept in wondered why their routines were so thrown off.

Daylight savings time officially began at 2 a.m. in most parts of the U.S. on Sunday, costing people a full hour of sleep. Manual clocks must be turned forward, while most Internet-connected devices automatically jumped from 1:59 a.m. to 3:00 a.m. on their own.

For some, this caused confusion as they woke up and found their phones, computers and other gadgets out of sync with their wall clocks, microwaves or ovens — not to mention their bodies. Many tweeted about how out of sorts they felt no matter when they woke up on Sunday.

The phenomenon caused equal-opportunity grumpiness, as even celebrities were put off. Actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt got one of the morning's top tweets with a simple: "Daylight Savings still sucks."

Of course, not everyone was displeased. Many people remarked that the loss of an hour was worth it to get the brighter evenings back — particularly people with unconventional work schedules. Daylight savings is also a welcome time for many people with depression or seasonal affective disorder.

"Night shift people be celebrating daylight savings like [its] New Year's Eve," one person wrote with a confetti emoji.

However people felt personally about daylight savings this year, the news always brings a public discussion and debate about the practice on social media. Many users wanted to know why this idea was still in practice and why it could not be changed, feeling that it must be inconvenient for the world economy.

Daylight savings was created in the late 19th century by scientist George Vernon Hudson. It allows farmers and other workers to get more usable daylight in the summer, hypothetically increasing productivity. However, with the world so interconnected now, some wonder if the drawbacks outweigh the benefits.

A mounting number of individuals and organizations are calling for an end to daylight savings time worldwide. According to the Maryland Patch, lawmakers are close to disbanding daylight savings in the state, and California may be considering the same, according to radio station Alt 105.3.

Other petitions around the world are making the case as well. A comprehensive list of the efforts was published by The Old Farmer's Almanac on Friday.

0comments
Start the Conversation

of