The reason I hear most often when this comes up: People like having more "sunshine" hours after their work day is done. DST provides an extra hour than standard time.
It's interesting how we try to solve problems.
Liiiiike making everybody move over to DST before making the time permanent?
I mean, sure, we're pretty used to doing it, but that's a sunk cost fallacy, isn't it? Better to freeze the time zones before forcing everyone going through it?
I can do that in the winter, sure, but in the summer there's a distinct lack of snow, which is nice.
You can't please everyone.
Or they could buy blackout curtains or a sleep mask?
The clock is just this little thing on your wall. The Sun is almighty and the reason why you're here. Forget the clock!
(I am pretty much straddling 70 degrees north as I type this - sun last seen Nov 23rd, comes back in two weeks. Midnight sun between May 17th and July 26th.)
Um, no? For example, in Alaska during the summer (in the northern hemisphere) there's a period of the year where they have sunlight 24 hours a day. In winter, they have 24 hours of darkness.
So no, it's not a "south" thing (until you get to, for example, Antarctica). The closer to the equator, the less extreme the changes are.
EDIT: I see your addition in specifying the sunset time right now, whereas the rest of the thread seems to be aimed at the extremes, which will be closer to the summer and winter solstices. We just passed the winter solstice, so of course the sun will be going down quite early (in the northern hemisphere).