People all over the country silently curse their clocks when they skip forward an hour every year for daylight savings time.
You may lay in bed and start to wonder, what is the deal with this annual time change and why do we still abide by it?
There doesn’t seem to be much precedence for time changes anymore, but when it began a hundred years ago, there was a good reason for it.
In this blog, we’ll discuss why we originally enacted time changes, and why we no longer need them.
A Brief History of Time Changes
Daylight savings doesn’t do anything to make our lives easier. All it does is mess up our clocks and make it brighter later in the day. So why was it even started in the first place?
Here is a brief history of why daylight savings started exactly 100 years ago.
When it All Began
Daylight savings was originally proposed by George Hudson, an entomologist from New Zealand in 1895. He wanted to save daylight so that when he finished working, he could go bug hunting.
However, it wasn’t until 1918 when daylight savings was officially enacted by the United States Congress.
The reason it was enacted was that they wanted to give people more hours of daylight during the day as a way to conserve energy. And it really did conserve a lot of energy, which is why it was so widely accepted.
The more daylight you had while you were awake, the less electricity you had to use during the day. This saved both energy resources and money.
Fast-forward to Today
The way we produce energy has changed since 1918, and saving daylight no longer has any bearing on conserving energy. This means we are basically turning our clocks back for the sake of tradition and law.
Arizona has said no to daylight savings time because of how hot it is there during the day. The residents would much rather have more hours of darkness when the temperature is more cool and tolerable.
Florida recently went the opposite direction of Arizona, by passing the Sunshine Protection Act, which means daylight savings will always be in place, if the bill is approved by Congress.
It’s Time to Let Go of the Past
Daylight savings time is a controversial topic twice a year when people are forced to turn their clocks forward or backward. The law has been around for exactly 100 years, and was initially enacted to save energy.
With more people questioning daylight savings time, we could see a lot of states start to follow in Arizona’s footsteps by passing bills that End Daylight Saving Time once and for all.
We should feel grateful for the advances we’ve made that allow us to conserve energy easily, and finally move on from the useless time changes.
With the benefits of time change far enough in the past that no one seems to remember why it was enacted in the first place, it only makes sense to change the law.