On Sunday, November 7th, we all reset our clocks an hour back to observe the end of daylight savings time. But why do we do it and is it really necessary?

Daylight Savings Time was first popularized by Germany in 1916 as a way to save fuel for other uses rather than artificial lighting during World War 1. Congress officially mandated DST in 1966, with an opt-out option for states if the whole state agreed not to do so. Today, Arizona and Hawaii are the only states that do not observe Daylight Savings Time. 

In my opinion, I don’t think that the U.S should still observe daylight savings time. While originally conceived as a method to save energy, a recent study has shown that U.S homes save little to no money on energy via DST. 

Wanting to hear other students’ opinions, I talked with freshman Ishav Narayanan.

Ishav was indifferent when I asked him about daylight savings,

“It’s [DST] probably not very useful anymore,” Ishav stated. “It doesn’t really affect me.”

The conversation was mostly about how insignificant daylight savings is to our everyday lives, and how with or without it, there wouldn’t be a real difference. When I presented him with the history of daylight savings, he agreed that it no longer serves the same purpose anymore.

I also spoke with freshman Karnik Patel. 

“I’m not really affected by it,” Karnik stated.

He mentioned how it doesn’t play a big role in our society anymore and that it’s not useful to the average person. 

The most concerning point to me is that around the world people don’t know what to do with DST. In the United States alone, bills are proposed every year in an effort to either remove or permanently stay with daylight savings. The world is always in disagreement, and it confounds me how people still support DST.

In fact, Georgia Governor Brian Kemp, signed a bill in Spring 2021 attempting to get the state of Georgia to have permanent daylight savings. However, the bill did not pass through Congress because of a technicality from the law enacted in 1966 saying that states can only opt-out from honoring daylight savings but could not use it year-round. 

This means that Georgia’s proposal remains invalid because of Congress’ law and that we will most likely be updating our clocks until significant legislative changes are made to standardize time across the globe. 

We don’t need daylight savings. All it does is disturb our sleep schedules. It simply has no more use today and the world should find a way to either decide to universally keep or remove it.