When you get a new app on your phone, one of the 1st things you do is change that 1 setting. It’s usually the most obvious, mindless, and predictable choice one could make. Turning the blinding excuse of a flashbang called light mode to the more practical and tolerable dark mode.
For me, it is always my first priority. Just spending a moment on the light screen hurts my eyes and my head somehow. That’s my drive to put it on dark mode right away. This being said, sometimes apps or websites do not offer a dark mode, in which case I must put up with it. But I usually won’t give up looking for the dark mode toggle unless I find sufficient proof that there is only a light mode.
When it comes to finding the dark mode setting, I am very tenacious.
Beyond my opinion, not everyone dislikes light mode. In fact, some of my friends even use light mode and prefer it over dark mode. I wanted to see how others in my school feel about light and dark mode. As such, a poll on The Oakmonitor was conducted to get the opinions of other Oakmont students on their preferences.
Firstly, 81% of students stated they prefer dark mode. I would consider myself in this percentage. 15% of students said they prefer light mode. Lastly, 4% of students stated they have no preference.
This boils down to roughly 4 out of 5 students preferring dark mode, around 3 out of 20 students preferring light mode, and 1 in 25 students having no preference.
As the saying goes, “Numbers don’t lie.” In this case, it’s an interesting showcase of the truth. From the data, it can be seen that over 20% of students (1 in 5) hold no favor to dark mode. I had anticipated almost all students would favor dark mode.
In addition to this, a small percentage of students surveyed (4%) had no preference. Even though it would be only 1 in 25 students, it goes to show that there are some out there who simply don’t care about light or dark mode. A very rare thing these days.
Many people online claim that dark mode is better for your eyes and reduces strain over long-term screentime. They also tend to claim that it can help users sleep better compared to using light mode. Health experts have denied these claims for the most part, and one study done in 2019 found that dark mode settings on Apple devices did not give any notable differences in the quality of sleep compared to users who used light mode. This is according to Healthline.
While I am a big-time dark-mode user, I, among many health experts, disagree with the acclaimed benefits that dark mode brings. Simply, I just like the way it looks.
To summarize, fans of both dark and light modes will always claim that one option is better than the other. I personally enjoy using dark mode, but not all Oakmont students feel the same way I do. Many more people use light mode than you or I might think. And plus, there are some to which neither makes a difference.
I’d imagine those few who don’t care must see all the bickering about light and dark mode and laugh. To them, we probably look like children fighting online about our choice of screen display mode.
