Daylight savings to stay or go?

by Dana Rodriguez, reporter

Daylight savings started this Sunday, which meant all around the world people changed their clocks ahead an hour. This, along with changing the clocks back an hour in the fall, is a longtime tradition, but will it be stopped?

“I do not like the work it takes every spring and fall to switch the clocks and would love to get rid of it,” says sophomore Kaitlin Feller.

Some people are pushing to get rid of the annual changing of the clocks, but why? To start, many people view the time change as inconvenient and do not like the hassle. It messes up sleep schedules and generally throws things off. The reason the tradition was started was to save energy in World War I so people did not use as much artificial light, but there is no longer a world war and this change is not needed. It would also help with time differences in the U.S.

“In addition to releasing us from the burden of having to set our clocks every few months, this will also reduce the number of time zones in the United States from four to two,” standardtime.com, a big supporter of the idea, says.

Some people do not believe that the idea is beneficial. Some health experts believe that daylight savings is good for peoples’ health. They say that more daylight means more time for people to be productive and outdoors. In a generation where so many people spend so much time on the couch, many find this essential.

“After so many years of switching back and forth, I do not see the use of changing it. We are all so used to it and it makes it lighter outside longer, which is something I look forward to,” sophomore Lauren Donati says.