Since the 1700s, people have known about Daylight Savings Time, or as it’s officially known, Daylight Saving Time.
Although it’s an outmoded concept for some, it’s not a dealbreaker. Whatever your opinion, Daylight Saving Time is here to stay – at least for now.
So, here’s why we’re still using Daylight Saving Time.
What was the rationale for the implementation of Daylight Saving Time?
According to the book Seize The Daylight, Benjamin Franklin came up with the idea of Daylight Saving Time as a means to reset clocks throughout the summer to save electricity.
Instead of spending energy on lights, Franklin reasoned, setting the clocks ahead an hour will make people more productive. At the time of his discovery, he was serving as the British ambassador in Paris in 1784.
However, according to Live Science, Daylight Saving Time, or simply DST, did not begin until more than a century later.
For the duration of World War I, Germany instituted Daylight Saving Time (DST) in May 1916. Soon after, the rest of Europe caught on, and the United States did, too, in 1918.
Farmers protested to President Woodrow Wilson’s plan to repeal daylight saving time after World War I because it would mean losing an hour of sunlight.
Is there any benefit to farmers from using Daylight Saving Time?
According to The Washington Post, the idea that Daylight Saving Time was instituted to benefit farmers is a lie.
So, until World War II, daylight saving time had been eliminated.
After the war, governments and municipalities were given a few years to determine whether or not to implement Daylight Saving Time.
To put an end to this chaos, Congress passed the Uniform Time Act of 1966, which mandated that all states observing Daylight Saving Time adhere to a statewide routine that began in the spring and ended in the late fall, regardless of where they were located.
We still have Daylight Saving Time, so why not get rid of it?
According to timeanddate.com, only about 40% of countries throughout the world use Daylight Savings Time..
One of these countries is the United States, as we are still in the process of implementing Daylight Saving Time.
Countries that observe Daylight Saving Time (DST) can benefit from an extra hour of daylight in the summer, as the days become longer as the Earth transitions from winter to summer..
According to Live Science, regions of the Earth farthest from the equator gain the most from Daylight Saving Time because of the more drastic changes in sunshine between seasons.
Except for Arizona and Hawaii, all states in the United States observe Daylight Saving Time (DST) on a seasonal basis.
MORE: Bizo Income Review – Is Bizo Income Scam or Legit – Registration and Login explain