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submitted 1 week ago by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/world@lemmy.world

Summary

Most European countries moved clocks forward one hour on Sunday, marking the start of daylight saving time (DST), a practice increasingly criticized.

Originally introduced during World War I to conserve energy, DST returned during the 1970s oil crisis and now shifts Central European Time to Central European Summer Time.

Despite a 2018 EU consultation where 84% of nearly 4 million respondents supported abolishing DST, implementation stalled due to member state disagreement.

Poland, currently holding the EU presidency, plans informal consultations to revisit the issue amid broader geopolitical priorities.

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[-] withabeard@lemmy.world 108 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Mid-day should be the middle of the day. Mid-night should be the middle of the night.

If you like more light in the ~~evening~~ morning go to bed late and wake up late. If you like light in the ~~morning~~ evening, go to bed early and wake up early.

Stop fucking with the clocks and making nonsensible decisions

[-] JohnDClay@sh.itjust.works 80 points 1 week ago

Mid-day should be the middle of the day. Mid-night should be the middle of the night.

You'd need new clocks, those times drift every day, so 12:00 midday would need to change automatically.

[-] zerofatorial@lemm.ee 47 points 1 week ago

Yeah this comment makes no sense lol who is upvoting this?

[-] SlopppyEngineer@lemmy.world 13 points 1 week ago

There are a lot of regions that are put into the wrong time zone, because that's easier for business. They're not even close to 12:00 being the middle of the day especially during DST.

[-] huppakee@lemm.ee 24 points 1 week ago

Yes, but the EU is split into four time zones now and if you implement this technically there would be many more:

8 if we'd have 30-min time-zones 16 if we'd have 15-min time-zones 24 if we'd have 10-min time-zones 48 if we'd have 5-min time-zones 240 if we'd have 1-min time-zones

I'm not saying we should keep dst, but we can't have everyone have midday at 12:00 and midnight at 00:00.

[-] pennomi@lemmy.world 16 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

You can keep 1 hour time zones just fine. It still puts noon within 1 hour of mid day, which you don’t get with DST.

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[-] Lemmyoutofhere@lemmy.ca 19 points 1 week ago
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[-] palordrolap@fedia.io 8 points 1 week ago

Your first two lines need a caveat: ... at a local meridian as chosen by the will of the people*.

Otherwise you end up in situations where every individual location sets their clock by local noon, which varies by longitude. If you think it's bad there are a handful of different time zones across your continent, wait until it's different from one end of town to the other.

The British invented (or popularised) standard time to avoid those sorts of problems. Problems that didn't exist until high-speed long distance travel became a thing. And time zones were a later addition because Britain didn't need any, but they're also somewhat necessary.

* for "will of the people", read "will of the ruling class" as necessary. See: China.

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[-] atomicbocks@sh.itjust.works 68 points 1 week ago

I will never understand why people want the time we only use for 3 months to be the time we use for the whole year. I would rather people just be able to admit that December is dark (for the northern hemisphere) and we can do shit at a different time.

[-] lepinkainen@lemmy.world 76 points 1 week ago

I literally couldn’t care less which time we pick, I just want the madness to STOP

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[-] stebo02@lemmy.dbzer0.com 19 points 1 week ago

wdym 3 months? both CET and CEST are used approximately half a year

[-] dubyakay@lemmy.ca 15 points 1 week ago

In North America DST is used from second Sunday of March until first Sunday of November.

This means there are 239 days in DST, and 126 days out of DST in 2025. Close to 2 to 1 ratio.

I know it's different with CEST and CET, and it sucks even more donkeyballs there, when the sun sets around 4PM (instead of 5) regardless.

DST should really be the standard in most places. You want more sunlight in the afternoon, not in the morning.

[-] stebo02@lemmy.dbzer0.com 11 points 1 week ago

I prefer more sunlight in the morning. It's better for your circadian rhythm and it is easier to wake up when it's bright outside.

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[-] Zink@programming.dev 13 points 1 week ago

Yep, the “standard” time should definitely be what we currently call daylight saving.

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[-] randint@lemmy.frozeninferno.xyz 45 points 1 week ago

To people thinking of enforcing UTC around the globe:

obligatory: https://qntm.org/abolish

Before I read this article, I also thought it would be a great idea to get rid of timezones entirely and just use UTC for everything. To quote from the link,

Abolishing time zones brings many benefits, I hope. It also:

  • causes the question “What time is it there?” to be useless/unanswerable
  • necessitates significant changes to the way in which normal people talk about time
  • convolutes timetables, where present
  • means “days” (of the week) are no longer the same as “days”
  • complicates both secular and religious law
  • is a staggering inconvenience for a minimum of five billion people
  • makes it near-impossible to reason about time in other parts of the world
  • does not mean everybody gets up at the same time, goes to work at the same time, or goes to bed at the same time
  • is not simpler.

As long as humans live in more than one part of the world, solar time is always going to be subjective. Abolishing time zones only exacerbates this problem.

(copied from one of my 9-month old comments)

[-] frank@sopuli.xyz 30 points 1 week ago

I mean the best refute of it I've ever heard is that the date changes in the middle of the day, and that sounds miserable

[-] barsoap@lemm.ee 16 points 1 week ago

UTC all around the world is a completely different thing than UTC (or UTC+1) all over Europe. China also spans just over three natural timezones and they get by just fine with one.

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[-] fatalicus@lemmy.world 35 points 1 week ago

The simple fact is that on the Monday after DST starts, more people have heart attacks and strokes.

Meaning that not going away from it means people will continue to die from it.

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[-] SleafordMod@feddit.uk 35 points 1 week ago

I like DST. I like having sunlight later into the evening during the summer.

[-] Zachariah@lemmy.world 82 points 1 week ago

The objection isn’t to DST, it’s to switching back and forth. Just pick one and stick with it.

[-] Cris_Color@lemmy.world 29 points 1 week ago

Yeah, as someone with a circadian rythm disorder DST time changes kinda destroy me. Every single year, twice a year.

I'm hoping the US manages to get rid of it, we had a bill to do just that get unexpectedly far, before stalling out I think :/

Sending love from the US, y'all take care :)

[-] Photuris@lemmy.ml 9 points 1 week ago

Split the difference at 30 minutes, and call it a day!

[-] Zachariah@lemmy.world 11 points 1 week ago

½ an hour is a very short day

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[-] PlantJam@lemmy.world 46 points 1 week ago

I think most people just don't like the time changes twice a year. Permanent standard time or summer time doesn't matter as much to me, just pick one and stay with it.

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[-] rockerface@lemm.ee 13 points 1 week ago
[-] xpinchx@lemmy.world 12 points 1 week ago

I'm with that guy, I get out of work at a set time I like to have some daylight after work. Doesn't matter what time I wake up, I don't wanna do things before work I just like to see the sun after work it gives me something to look forward to.

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[-] FreakinSteve@lemmy.world 32 points 1 week ago

I live in a non-DST area and it is very nice

[-] blimthepixie@lemmy.dbzer0.com 24 points 1 week ago

No one is complaining about when we all gain an hours sleep in Autumn

[-] Mog_fanatic@lemmy.world 40 points 1 week ago

I do. I can't stand it because where I live it means I will no longer see the sun. Not to even mention how much it sucks ass from a mental standpoint to get out of work and have it be dark. I could not care less if I see a tiny bit of sunlight on my way to work lol. I've had multiple jobs where once ST hits, I'm going to work and coming home in darkness. I literally dont see the sun until the weekend. Imo give me whichever option that maximizes sunlight during most people's free time.

[-] Hawke@lemmy.world 18 points 1 week ago

give me whichever option that maximizes sunlight during most people's free time

That’s not changed by adjusting clocks, it’s changed by adjusting work hours.

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[-] dQw4w9WgXcQ@lemm.ee 31 points 1 week ago

I have never liked it.

As a person, I don't like the inconsistency.

As a developer, I don't like to not be able to use the local time as a consistent way to order data.

As a father, I don't like to have to adjust a daily routine of my baby who has just reached a good 24 hour schedule.

[-] MutilationWave@lemmy.dbzer0.com 14 points 1 week ago

You'll trade one day of one extra hour of sleep for increased misery all winter long?

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[-] FreakinSteve@lemmy.world 8 points 1 week ago

You dont gain an hour's sleep.

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[-] FinishingDutch@lemmy.world 21 points 1 week ago

They need to seriously quit this bullshit. It serves no practical purpose in our modern society, while also having tangible negative effects. So why keep doing it?

I enthusiastically support getting rid of this nonsense.

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[-] Kuma@lemmy.world 13 points 1 week ago

I would have never known if it wasn't because a coworker told me or because of articles like these. My cat wakes me up at 7- 7:30 and he did that this morning too, so I was very surprised that I slept only 7 hours instead of 8 (before I knew). But the funnits part is that my cat followed DST haha

[-] Opisek@lemmy.world 8 points 1 week ago

Your cat must be in on the conspiracy. Perhaps even part of the deep state.

[-] manicdave@feddit.uk 12 points 1 week ago

The thing I don't get is why it happens in the summer rather than the winter.

In the UK it gets dark at about 4pm in winter. We basically get no leisure time during daylight but we do get a bit of light during getting ready for work time when we don't really need it.

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[-] bampop@lemmy.world 12 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

I have a taxi company. On one night, one of my drivers did two jobs, one dispatched at 00:15, the other at 00:45, and he clocked off at 02:15. How long was he working for?

A) 1 hour

B) 2 hours

C) 3 hours

D) 2 hours 30 minutes

E) any of the above

[-] misteloct@lemmy.world 12 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

American here, trick question, it's E. Irrelevant, the driver is only paid through tips and the employer doesn't pay payroll taxes, so his working hours are of no consequence.

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[-] TheFrirish@jlai.lu 9 points 1 week ago

Trying to make a non issue an issue

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this post was submitted on 30 Mar 2025
481 points (100.0% liked)

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