Daylight Savings: Is It Still Relevant?

So, we're all still adjusting to the time change from the weekend. We essentially gained an hour with the "falling" back of time. As a kid, I LOVED this weekend, and conversely absolutely HATED the spring jump forward, as it made me so exhausted. (Who am I kidding?! I STILL hate the "spring forward" of time!) But is this time swing still necessary these days?

Daylight savings is often erroneously attributed to being encouraged by Benjamin Franklin. He never suggested it. Instead, he was a proponent for "early to bed, early to rise." Which many of us already do, but there STILL isn't enough time in a day to get things done!  I think we've all longed for a few more hours in the day to get things done, but moving the time back or forward an hour doesn't really assist with that now, does it? We still only have 24 hours each day.

I've even heard that it was farmers who pushed for the time change, but that wasn't the case either. Allegedly, farmers wanted more daylight hours to harvest their crops. And while that makes sense, it wouldn't benefit certain farmers, who were unable to start their daily harvest until the dew had evaporated off of their crops.  As a matter of fact, many farmers were against the time shift. 

The act of changing the time was actually first implemented during World War I, by the Germans and their allies, as an effort to conserve coal. And pretty much everyone else decided that was a pretty brilliant idea, so they all followed suit.

Many modern-day "thinkers" have attempted to illustrate the benefits of the time change as a "win" for a variety of things from energy consumption to public safety--because it stays "lighter" outside longer. For me personally, I think it's a waste of energy. MY energy and yours! I think it's a downright drain on my body to adjust twice a year to the change. Plus, by the time I finally get as comfortable as humanly possible with it--we swing the other way again!

And any of us with computers and smart phones know all too well the frustration over them either not making the change or not having the "correct" day to make the change in their system, since we "moved" the date for the fall change back in 2007. As a side note, we REALLY rely far too much on computers for things these days, don't we?!

There are parts of the world, including places here in the United States that do not observe the time change at all. I'm currently considering moving there. 

Ok, not really--I like it too much here, but I really wish we didn't observe this silly time dance twice a year. It's a nuisance, in my opinion. What do you think? Are you in favor of keeping Daylight Savings in effect or do you think it's time to yank it? Drop us an email.