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March 9, 2012 By 18 Comments

Understanding Daylight Saving Time…

Image courtesy Creative Common

This Saturday, we set our clocks ahead in the semi-annual ritual of Daylight Saving Time, which used to occur like clockwork every six months here in America.

However, the observance of this event in the U.S. got an update in 2007, when Daylight Saving Time was extended by one month creating a window that runs from 2 a.m. on the second Sunday in March and lasts until 2 a.m. on the first Sunday of November.

The change was implemented under the Energy Policy Act of 2005 and the new start and stop dates took effect two years later.

Below is a video explanation of the history and practice of the Daylight Saving phenomenon from the informative, entertaining and irrepressible C.G.P. Grey.

Question: Is Daylight Saving Time an outdated practice that should be abandoned?

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  • http://randomlychad.com Chad Jones

    C.S. Lewis said it best: “Time is a contrivance created for the convenience of man.”

    • http://www.thedailyretort.com/ TorConstantino

      Great quote!!!

  • http://www.facebook.com/lorraine.m.davis1 Lorraine M Davis Jimenez

    The original reason the the US changed the clocks was agricultural. I think this is a very outdated practice, but the energy companies due profit from this in the US. This is why they changed the days when it would change.

  • AnnMullen

    I hate the time changes. I don’t care if they save energy or not. It messes with my energy and I am a person who needs enough sleep and to eat before I get low blood sugar. The time changes, both of them put me in the wrong places at the wrong time for over a week each. As for whether they save energy, I don’t know. I do know that because of the possibility, I will have to put up with it. Thanks, Tor, for the chance to vent.

  • Barb

    I think our time should be left alone. No DST.

    • http://www.thedailyretort.com/ TorConstantino

      Spot on Bard, thanks for sharing your opinion!

  • Rob

    Yes. Adjusting to it takes months and there simply is no purpose anymore.

    • http://www.thedailyretort.com/ TorConstantino

      Agreed Rob, thanks for reading and posting a comment!

  • http://www.encourageyourspouse.com/ Lori Ferguson

    You know, Robert and I were talking about DST driving home yesterday – and neither one of us could ‘remember’ WHY it started. (we kinda thought it had its roots in agriculture). Thanks again, Tor, for keeping us talking.

    (I vote NO to DST)

    • http://www.thedailyretort.com/ TorConstantino

      I agree Lori, it’s a waste of time – literally!

    • Calsunflower

      People like to say that it was for the farmers, but farmers don’t work by the clock, they work by the sun.

      • http://www.thedailyretort.com/ TorConstantino

        Great point Cal – thanks for making it!

  • http://www.adjuvancy.com/wordpress Roy A. Ackerman, Ph.D., E.A.

    Back when I lived in Ann Arbor, we had an office in Indiana- which did not participate in this charade. (Sorry, Tor, the data that demonstrates it saves energy is too old; the current data shows it has no effect.) Anyway, our standard meeting time had to be changed in the Summer, because our compatriots had gone home. (They stayed in the Central Standard Time zone all year round.) That’s my feeling about DST…

    • http://www.thedailyretort.com/ TorConstantino

      No need to apologize, I think DST is a sham; however, I think CGP Grey does a GREAT job explaining the lunacy behind these types of traditions…

  • http://www.ramblingbarba.com Ken Hagerman

    This thing jacks us up every year. We are in the same time zone as the East coast. However, currently we are 2 hours ahead on the clock. The EST is back an hour. Paraguay also observes DST but it is in the Southern Hemisphere so our seasons are opposite. That means we moved forward an hour. They also go with the original date so our next change will be April 8th, I think.

    Part of the year we are on the same time as our families, part of the year there is one hour difference, and part there is two hours difference. The funny thing is no matter the time there is still a 1-3 hour siesta observed throughout much of the country to avoid working in the blazing heat.

    Always informative Tor. Thanks

  • Calsunflower

    It is useless.

    • http://www.thedailyretort.com/ TorConstantino

      Amen and amen…

  • Mustloveou

    I have several friends who live in Hawaii, and most of them have lived in the states long before they got stationed out there. When asking them what it was like to not have daylights savings time, they said they didn’t even notice. With the modern invition of electricity, most people burn the candle long into the night anyways, but for someone who is young, and spends most of my time outside, I feel daylight saving time is a great chance for young kids, to spend that extra hour outside everyday during the summer. Some of my greatest memories as a child where during the last few hours of sunlight in the summer, 4th of July is during that time, and everyone knows how magical that night is for a lot of young kids. But as with everything we have to realize that time is just an illusion, and we really have no control over it, the sun runs its course the same everyday, whether we are awake an extra hour during it or not, does not change that. But to put a point on it, I like it, and I think it serves a purpose that deams it worthy of staying around for a while longer.