Daylight savings is outdated, makes class times and practice difficult

By EDWARD MUSSEY

Staff Writer

Daylight savings is an obsolete practice that is still in use today. The rationale behind daylight savings comes from a time when society needed more daylight for doing farm work. People spend more and more time indoors during the day than they used to when this practice was instituted. While it was meant to help farmers, daylight savings does nothing for the majority of people nowadays. By changing the clock twice a year it negatively affects more people than it helps.

It’s more of a problem, and inconvenience, than a benefit. Daylight savings affects schools, students and businesses due to the change in time limiting the amount of light in the winter. In a society that is more and more industrialized, daylight savings has become obsolete.

The effect it has on students can be quite troublesome. Most students enjoy having light when late classes end so there is still time to do things outside. The earlier it becomes dark outside also affects people’s mood.

“It’s really just annoying since it gives you a very limited window to do things outside like play football or practice,” said senior English major Joe Langley. “It’s also especially annoying when having a night class and coming out when it’s all dark. I’ll go into class with it being bright and come out pitch black and it really just bums you out and changes your whole mood since all you can do now is go home.”

Daylight savings can affect sleep schedules, causing some individuals to not be able to get the right amount and that can affect students’ schoolwork or the ability to attend classes that may be early in the morning.

“During the fall and winter-time, the extra hour of sleep that’s gained is nice for the morning but the drawback of it getting darker earlier isn’t worth it. By becoming darker earlier, it just makes you not want to leave the house and stay inside since it’s so dark even if it’s only like five o’clock,” said senior digital studies and communications major Alex Caldas. “It really is a hassle also dealing with daylight savings in spring since it just messes up my whole sleep pattern. One day you’re used to waking up late then the next waking up early. It just would be easier to always keep time the same.”  

Doing away with daylight savings has started to gain more support since it has started to affect international business. Only Europe and North America still practice daylight savings so it hinders international travel and communication. Individual states in the US including Hawaii and Arizona have stopped observing daylight savings, both citing their climates as the reason. Florida has also started the process to do away with daylight savings since it limits the amount of sun in the sunshine state.

“Right now in my home state of Florida, we have been trying to do away with daylight savings. It’s something my parents informed me of that Florida passed a bill to do away with the clock change and keep it the same all year round but supposedly it needs a lot of approval to take effect,” said senior business major Phillip Manceri.
Manceri continued, “It’s just annoying to change time since in VA it gets dark and cold so quickly that it makes going outside a really big hassle. Being on the golf team I have to practice outside and when it gets darker quicker it limits the window of time that is available to practice. So, the whole idea just doesn’t make sense to me in the first place.”

Changing daylight savings is important so people fully get rested and are able to enjoy the outdoors as best they can during the fall. The fall season has the most beautiful scenery with the leaves changing and it’s impossible to enjoy it all in the dark.

Daylight savings is an archaic practice that doesn’t do much other than bother people in modern society.