Question 1: Revised Daylight Savings

Don Dela Cruz

04/15/15

P/4

Daylight Savings: Why?

     What once started as advice for candle saving by the famous Benjamin Franklin is now a global adaption to daily life; daylight savings has become a necessity to society's years in life and how measurement of time and moments have become man-made ideals. The repetition of adjustment in time seems utterly common, as if the world just adopted it naturally. While it seems this way, daylight savings is still an arguable factor to some nations' lives. Using several sources, the complications of the topic can be understood and analyzed. Is daylight savings just a method of federal uselessness or is it a significant part of overall greatness?

     Daylight savings is adjusted automatically via electronics and appliances, but does this mean it is a necessity to the already complicated life systems? The excerpt from the article "Energy Bill Would Extend Daylight Savings Time" by Robert Loigley explains the only society which seems to benefit and use the energy method: "...show that America's electricity usage is reduced about one percent..." In another excerpt from the book "Seize the Daylight: The Curious and Continuous Story of Daylight Savings Time" by David Prerau, the author explains its statistic usage in benefiting society by conserving enough energy to reciprocate other priorities; "...the extra hour of light in the evening could cause an increase in recreational and shopping travel by automobile..." Because we do not entirely mind the existence of something as ordinary as Daylight Savings, society does not completely understand its origins or purposes towards past society and how it had been used before. Not only does Daylight Savings Time endeavor the conservation of energy, but also physical safety to humans. 

     It seems rather obvious that Daylight Savings Time ties into the relevance of sunlight and energy, but much of its significance is also for human safety and precautionary methods. In another excerpt from David Prerau's, he writes "People feel generally safer in the daylight, and many types of crime are believed to be influenced by lighting conditions" It seems, on a more realistic note, that the purpose of daylight savings is to extend time with light and how it can help/support the importance of safety. In Source D, a graph from an article proves how daylight savings improves statistics of crashes and drastically changes afterwards. The fact that statistics give support to the ideals of daylight savings gives a better viewing of positively seeing the idea as an opportunity rather than a burden. Because of this creation, the scene of car accidents and death would not plague the universe due to its natural habitat of occasional darkness.

     As an ignorant American mindlessly following the herd of sheep to do whatever my superiors say, I have ignorantly never bothered to understand something as inventive and innovative such as daylight savings. It becomes a tedious idea due to its relevance in only occasional times of the year, yet the turning of a clock backwards or forwards seem so far from relevant. This ignorance causes me to realize that I should be understand and evaluating even the tiniest nook and cranny because in some odd way, industrialization brings forth the idea that most of everything we do today is a measured spectral of man-made knowledge.