1. KevinRichard

    KevinRichard Member

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    Daylight Savings Time

    Discussion in 'The Lounge' started by KevinRichard, Mar 8, 2009.

    Does anyone else besides me think that DST, especially the "springing forward" aspect of it, is unnecessary and unfair?

    I mean, sure, we get extra daylight tacked onto our day, reducing the use of electric, or incandescent, lighting and some studies show that less people die in traffic accidents during the spring/summer sections of DST, but why?

    Why doesn't someone stand up, like men did a century ago to argue for the creation and enforcement of these time-based laws, and argue the opposite?

    DST is a completely arbitrary and unnecessary invention - like television, hair conditioner, cell phones, and cigarettes: we are constantly forgetting to remind ourselves that we have, can, and will live without them.
     
  2. Xeno

    Xeno Mad and Bitey Contributor

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    Actually I think that for the reasons it was created, it should be upheld for respect. It worked when it was invented.

    Plus, what's the big problem with it? all you have to do is set your clocks back, and nowadays everything resets for you. Plus, you get an extra hour of sleep.

    And I think that arbitrary things are usually the most fun things in life. Otherwise we'd all be sheep.

    My Two Cents.
     
  3. Kratos

    Kratos New Member

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    Not this part of Daylight Savings Time. You get an hour less of sleep, because you spring forward. It sucks.

    And yes, I agree. DST is stupid and unnessessary. When we change the clock, we're only changing our perception of time, not time itself.
     
  4. SonnehLee

    SonnehLee Contributor Contributor

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    I am not a fan of daylight savings. I don't like waking up at five am on the mornings we fall back, and not being able to go back to sleep. I don't like the sun being bright in my bedroom while I'm still asleep, and I don't like waking up early on the days where we spring forward.

    Yes. Dump it.
     
  5. KP Williams

    KP Williams Active Member

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    Maybe we should all move to Arizona. From what my friend says, DST doesn't exist over there. And she lives there, so I'm taking her word for it.
     
  6. tehuti88

    tehuti88 New Member

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    I think DST has outlived its purpose and should be done away with.

    When I was in school I was told that it helped so that kids wouldn't be out waiting in the dark for their buses. Don't know how true that is, but I can say for a fact that despite DST, there were many times when I stood out and waited for the bus over a half hour in total darkness. Didn't quite help me then.

    Plus it makes it hard to cast natal charts. Not that I'm casting any, but...*shrug.*

    And I live just fine without cigarettes and cell phones, at least.

    ETA:

    Everyone has the right to an opinion, but "upholding it for respect" (for whom?) because "it worked when it was invented" is kind of odd. :confused: All sorts of things worked out when they were invented--slavery, for one thing. Beta instead of VHS (or DVDs or Blu-Ray), for another. Is that a reason to uphold them...? I'm just puzzled by that. I also don't know who respect is due to. I don't think too many people would be personally offended if they decided to do away with DST. Upset for their own reasons, yes, but a loss of respect...?

    Not really. You lose the hour you gain in Fall Back with Spring Ahead, so they cancel each other out. No hours are really lost or gained in the long run.
     
  7. Xeno

    Xeno Mad and Bitey Contributor

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    Fine, forget it then. I'm not getting involved anymore. I'm sick of arguing about stupid things. Just disregard my previous posts.
     
  8. tehuti88

    tehuti88 New Member

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    Well, I meant no offense, but whatever. *shrug*
     
  9. Xeno

    Xeno Mad and Bitey Contributor

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    Haha sorry. :redface: Bit tetchy this morning. Didn't get much sleep last night. Wasn't directed at you.

    But seriously, I don't want to get involved in any arguements anymore, I'm so sick of it. :rolleyes:
     
  10. Cogito

    Cogito Former Mod, Retired Supporter Contributor

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    I like the later sunsets in the warmer months, during Daylight Savingfs Time, AND the earlier sunrise in the winter months, during Standard Time. It's only how we align our daily schedules, but that small thing is worth the small adhustment to our sleep schedules twice a year.

    But I'm a glass-half-full kind of guy anyway.
     
  11. Dalouise

    Dalouise New Member

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    It irritates me when people - especially radio presenters - say we are getting an extra hour of daylight. As already said, it doesn't affect the length of day or amount of light. I don't have a problem either way. In Ireland, the UK model of putting clocks forward an hour in spring and the reverse in autumn is adopted although it may be called something different, of course. ;)
    When I have nothing planned which is most days, I wake when it gets light or rather, the dogs get me up when it becomes light.
     
  12. Speedy

    Speedy Contributor Contributor

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    Usually we g"get the extra hour of daylight" when summer starts though..and the days do get longer during usmmer anyway. It's just get you too be awake to see it as well.
     
  13. KevinRichard

    KevinRichard Member

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    It's true that it is only a small adjustment, maybe not large enough to gripe over.

    I want to mention that in autumn, the setting back of my clock is my favorite day of the year. The only time in a year that you get actual free time. From the hours of 1 AM - 2 AM on that day, you can do whatever you please, and when the clock strikes two, it will become 1 AM again, essentially giving back the last hour of time.

    My love of the autumn adjustment serves as the impetus for my hatred of this day and its adjustment. But you cannot have one without the other, I suppose.
     
  14. Mercurial

    Mercurial Contributor Contributor

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    I dont mind DST much... although I'm very confused about 'what time is it really?' and worried about what I'm going to miss the next day if my clock is screwed up. Because some are digital and some are not, I never know what time it is, at least for a week or so. :p
     
  15. star_fire

    star_fire New Member

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    aaarrgghhh! *pulls at hair hysterically*

    forgot it was daylight savings time and got to the library an hour late!

    *groan* i hate this time of year...
     
  16. Lyssa

    Lyssa New Member

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    This doesn't have much to do with the arguement but you know a few weeks ago we set it forward an hour? Yea, well I was at a friends house and we had to get up for church the next day. That starts at 9. We wake up and see it's like, 9:00. We still need to find a ride and it takes like 20 minutes to get there. So finally I call my dad and he says he'll come. Then we go up and are running around getting our stuff and everything. Then we realize all the other clocks say it's about 8. So we're like um....what the heck?
    Then her mom tells her she set her clock ahead for her....but my friend says SHE did it. They argue until we finally come to the conclusion that her clock was set ahead 2 hours...we woke my parents up early, we had plenty off time. And we were at church considerably early. Not really late. So grrrr on Daylight Savings time.
     
  17. hiddennovelist

    hiddennovelist Contributor Contributor

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    Your friend speaks the truth. I have never experienced DST, and I can't say that I ever want to...it doesn't sound like fun.
     
  18. Bob Magness

    Bob Magness New Member

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    It is also a pain in this increasingly global communtiy we live in. Not all countries practice it. They don't here in Cambodia. And of the counties that do practice it they don't all do it at the same time. It can be a bit of a pain when doing business on an international scale.
     
  19. Lyssa

    Lyssa New Member

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    Oh I'm sure it is....why don't they do it in Arizona?
     
  20. apathykills

    apathykills New Member

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    We are, during the summer the sun is in the sky for a longer duration of time, so more of the 24 hours that make up a day have light in them. Therefore you do gain more daylight, about an hour of it.

    It is always NOW, no matter what the clock says.

    There is a reason for this practice btw, it's that during the summer, the days grow longer and during the winter they grow shorter. A day may always be 24 hours long, but the amount of time the sun stays up in the sky changes, in the summer you can wake up later since the sun sets later. During the winter you need to get up early so as not to miss what little sunshine there is.

    This is not something that was manufactured for no reason, not does it go against the natural order of things. You see in "olden times" there were no clocks and time was set by using the sun, so DST happened naturally. Clocks are the unnatural thing in this equation, but i highly doubt anyone would like to break 'em.
     
  21. hiddennovelist

    hiddennovelist Contributor Contributor

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    No idea. Maybe because it's so ridiculously hot during the day that rather than give ourselves some extra daylight, we'd rather deal with the darkness in the hopes that it gets a little cooler?

    Edit: I was joking...but I googled it and it looks like that may actually be why we don't have DST...
     
  22. Lyssa

    Lyssa New Member

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    Huh. Well that works. I understand that.
     
  23. lordofhats

    lordofhats New Member

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    We could live without them if we wanted to turn back the clock 200 years instead of 1 hour. Just saying. The modern civilization we've built is kind of dependent on some "arbitrary" things to maintain itself (Mass communication, example television, being one of them).

    As for DST: Is it really that hard to adjust your clock? Sounds like arguing against something for the sole sake of arguing to me. I like the extra hour of sunlight. The 24 hour day is just our abstracted mental depiction of time anyway. We invented it, we can screw with it however we want :p.
     
  24. Neha

    Neha Beyond Infinity. Contributor

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    I didn't even know something like that existed. I'm pretty sure we don't have DST here.
     
  25. Wreybies

    Wreybies Thrice Retired Supporter Contributor

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    My only prob with DLST is that i live in Puerto Rico were we don't do DLST, but all of our television (except for the local channel WAPA) comes from the US mainland, included the Spanish channels Univision and Telemundo. This means that when we are out of tune with the east coast, all the times are off on our satellite cable, which means if you want to digitally record anything, you have to do math, and none of the titles match with what is recorded. Mess.
     

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