Should we have daylight saving time?

Encyclopedia of Opinion

Question: Should we have daylight saving time?
Position‹2 of 2: No, we should not have daylight saving time
Argument1 of 3›: Daylight saving time is outdated

Daylight saving time was created for the 20th century and should be left in that era.

The argument

When adopted in the early 20th century, Daylight Saving Time successfully reduced energy consumption and continued to do so for several decades. The argument does not dispute that record; it holds that the record belongs to conditions which no longer exist. Now, over a century later, the concept isn't relevant, because the measure was designed for a society whose energy use tracked the sun, and ours does not. The original logic depended on scarcity. For most of the 1900s, people did not rely on energy and electricity as they do now; today, very few people would be able to manage without energy. Back in the day, the addition or retraction of an hour would allow people to use natural light and spend more time outdoors, so moving the clock genuinely substituted daylight for fuel. The saving was real because the alternative to daylight was expensive and limited. That substitution no longer takes place. Nowadays people are going to use electricity even during the day, so light from the window does not displace light from the socket. They're going to stay up as late as they like, thus using energy regardless of when the sun sets, and most people stay indoors to watch TV rather than spend time outside. Shifting an hour of daylight therefore moves sunlight past a population that is not out in it. The scale of that indoor shift is offered as evidence. In fact, a study shows that on average, children are only spending 4 hours outside a week, a figure the original rationale could not have anticipated, and one that describes a life arranged around interiors rather than around daylight. The days of society relying on sunlight for activities and everyday life is gone, and on this view the concept of Daylight Saving Time should go with it.

Context

The concept of Daylight Saving Time was originally proposed by Benjamin Franklin in 1784. Flash forward over a hundred years and Europe and the United States finally adopted the concept in 1916 and 1918 (respectively) during the First World War. Though some people believe it was originally implemented for agrarian reasons (more sunlight for farmers), it was actually adopted to reduce energy and help with load smoothing.

Premises

[P1]Daylight Saving Time cut energy use when adopted last century because people relied on natural light and spent time outdoors. [P2] Today people use electricity throughout the day, stay up late, and stay indoors, so shifting the clock no longer saves energy. [P3] With society no longer organised around sunlight, the original rationale for the practice has disappeared. [C] Therefore, because daylight saving time is outdated, we should not have it.

Counter-arguments

Even though Daylight Saving Time doesn't save as much energy as it used to, it still helps out.

Rejecting the premises

[Rejecting P2] Reducing a little bit of energy usage is better than reducing no energy usage at all.