The Dark Side of Dark Mode

tidbits.com

7 points·mrzool··5 comments

So here we have an enormous article assailing dark mode, which at the veerrry end remarks:

"There will also be some excellent niche uses for Dark Mode. Let’s say you’re a musician who uses a MacBook Pro as part of your performance on a darkened stage. Even though the MacBook Pro will be harder and slower to use in Dark Mode, those downsides are likely worthwhile to avoid a bright glowing white light illuminating your face. Similarly, if you read at night on your iPhone while someone else is sleeping next to you, it’s only kind to switch to light-on-dark—whether in an ebook app or in iOS 13 if it does gain Dark Mode—to reduce the chance your insomnia will wake up your bed partner."

Er...

are the claims that dark mode makes you "slower" and "stupider" founded?

The article points out that, while there are occasional uses for dark mode, people shouldn't be using it all the time. I frequently see people preaching that light theme is impossible to look at and they use dark mode 24/7. It's not saying that Apple is wrong for implementing dark mode, it's criticizing people's choice to use dark mode all the time. To quote the article, "there’s a big difference between using Dark Mode for such occasional salutary reasons and pretending, as Apple’s marketers do, that it’s anything but a productivity hit."

We must know very different people, then, because the ones I know who talk about Dark Mode (and who I recently implemented Dark Mode on gwern.net for) all talk about it for night or similar uses.

Mind articulating your point with words? The article explains why dark mode would not be desirable in most cases, and closes with a couple of examples where dark mode might be desirable. What’s that “Er” supposed to mean?

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