This coming Sunday, most Americans will participate in ‘springing forward,’ meaning that everyone will have to adjust their clocks and prepare to lose one hour for daylight savings time. Daylight savings is observed by most of North America, Europe, and parts of South America, Africa, and Australia.
However, in the United States, both Hawaii and Arizona do not get involved in daylight savings, Hawaii because the amount of daylight that they get does not change much because of their location, and (most of) Arizona because adding an extra hour would not be preferable during the hotter months of the year, according to World Population Review.
“I feel like it would be easier if all the states did one or the other in terms of Daylight Savings,” freshman Ainsley Smith said. “I think that it’s kind of confusing that there’s some that do and some that don’t, but overall, I would prefer it if we just didn’t do daylight savings,”
Daylight savings time is a period in which the sun tends to set later for most states, and because of this, the clock is turned forward in order to maximize the extra amount of daylight, according to University of Colorado Boulder. In a similar fashion, later on in the year, when the sun starts to set later, the clocks are turned backwards.
The opinion on daylight savings time tends to be controversial, some thinking that it is useful, and others not so much. On one hand, this practice could be seen as a logical way to make the most of the light that is provided during this interval of time, according to junior Nathania Chao.
“I think that daylight savings does have a purpose,” Chao said. “It makes sure that we make the most of the time we have in the day,”
On the other hand, some think that turning the clock forward just to turn it back again is not very useful, and overall becomes an inconvenience, especially when an hour is lost. The abrupt change of schedule could be disconcerting and overall not worth it, according to Smith.
“I like it when we gain an hour, but not when we lose one,” Smith said. “I personally don’t prefer daylight savings though, because I do like it when it’s dark at night sometimes.”
