101–110 of 552 posts
Dark mode is inherently lower contrast, and most displays perform worse on dark content.
Plus, some of us like to be outside. With bright sunlit ambient light (not even necessarily direct), dark mode content is practically invisible (just a black screen).
That article mentions a study suggesting that light-mode screen viewing can contribute to myopia. I was very surprised by this. The study is here:
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-28904-x
I also found a few things that make me want to consider the findings seriously. The authors are well-known; Schaeffer (corresponding) has an h-index of 50. The study is also cited by a review on myopia from 2019, which notes (original study is [112]):
>A recent hypothesis is that the problem may be associated with the predominant use of black text on white background [112]. This hypothesis proposes that the problem lies in the balance of stimulation of ON and OFF visual pathways, with natural scenes leading to balanced stimulation, with black text on white heavily overstimulating OFF pathways. Given that ON-bipolar pathways stimulate release of dopamine from amacrine cells [113], and dopamine agonists can inhibit axial elongation in animal models [114, 115], this is a promising link.
https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-981-13-8491-2_...
Ironically, I think I'll be switching devices to dark mode a lot more having found this blog post. But as with any new scientific hypothesis, this one will probably evolve over the coming years.
When I want to do some light reading in bed at night (I do have a blue light filter on for that), I will often abandon even trying to read pages with white backgrounds because it is quite uncomfortable.
I do not care if scientifically I read three words less per minute, this is about perception. A dark mode option on a site shows me the developer cares to cover my use case and makes me more likely to go back.
If you need to do a light theme only, then just the HN reddish-tint on the background helps me a lot.
> On the flip side, long-term reading in light mode may be associated with myopia.
https://www.nngroup.com/articles/dark-mode/ https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-28904-x
"Is Dark Mode Such a Good Idea?" Yes, it is. One thing is reading a newspaper in which text amounts to a good percentage of the available area, and the rest reflects ambient light, and a whole different thing is a screen with some text in the middle and the free area emitting white light right to my eyes, de facto saturating them. I would never read a white text on black paper newspaper, neither in the dark nor in th…
"Is Dark Mode Such a Good Idea?" Yes, it is. One thing is reading a newspaper in which text amounts to a good percentage of the available area, and the rest reflects ambient light, and a whole different thing is a screen with some text in the middle and the free area emitting white light right to my eyes, de facto saturating them. I would never read a white text on black paper newspaper, neither in the dark nor in th…
Customize your device for your comfort. Even if there are studies that show on average humans retain information better reading in light mode. That's merely the average! Variation is the only certainty in biology. It's good we have options. First I found I read my kindle more than physical books even though I prefer the look and feel of physical books. Then I found I read even more on my ipad with the kindle app show…
>Customize your device for your comfort. I think the better advice is, customize your environment for your comfort. Often the reason why people use dark mode is that they use their devices in badly lit environments . It's not a good idea to stare into a bright monitor in a dark room, and the dark mode is arguably the wrong fix for the problem. Reading in dimly lit rooms is known to cause headaches and eye strain and…
If you’re reading something purely reflective like paper, sure. If you’re reading a screen that is shooting rays of light directly into your eyeballs though?
This is kinda clickbait - all of the research mentioned was not 'research' at all - all the articles mentioned by the OP as "studies" (apart from the battery section) were from NN, or Nielson Norman Group, which were opinion articles by authors employed at that company lightly referencing a few studies. It's all highly subjective and opinionated at best, and "ain’t all that" is about the best we can say on this subje…
"Is Dark Mode Such a Good Idea?" Yes, it is. One thing is reading a newspaper in which text amounts to a good percentage of the available area, and the rest reflects ambient light, and a whole different thing is a screen with some text in the middle and the free area emitting white light right to my eyes, de facto saturating them. I would never read a white text on black paper newspaper, neither in the dark nor in th…
It is likely that you have your display brightness too high. Indoors, in light mode, most modern screens need to be set at 50% or lower brightness.