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Is Dark Mode Such a Good Idea?

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Re: Is Dark Mode Such a Good Idea?

#391

Post by coffeeling »

WarOnPrivacy wrote: post #84

>Is Dark Mode Such A Good Idea? Yes. >Many people quote light mode as being a contributory factor to eye strain. Based on the reading I’ve done, this doesn’t appear to be true. I'll test that now. - Blindy migraine mode: Hurts. - Dark mode: Doesn't hurt. - Different result ever? No. The above is from the undisputed, worldwide expert on what I feel.

You likely have your display's brightness set higher than it needs to because the dark mode pixels let less light into your eyes. Secondly, the initial dark-to-light switch is always jarring, and usually more jarring than switching from light to dark (which isn't always jarring, even). But that effect is temporary, and usually disappears by the next day.

Re: Is Dark Mode Such a Good Idea?

#392

Post by philliphaydon »

ryan93 wrote: post #336
philliphaydon wrote: post #276

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m 34. Had 20/20 vision all my life. Until around April this year from being in lockdown and stuck at home working more due to not going out and such. I felt like I’m getting eye strain. And difficulty focusing. I ended up with glasses 3 weeks ago for “computer vision” I can’t wear them walking around the house as it makes me feel dizzy. But in front of the computer it makes a difference. Think I’m gonna try find a…

I had to switch from contacts to glasses after leaving college and getting an office job. My eye doctor said staring at screens causes focusing issues.

I've always made it a point to stand up once an hour and walk out side for 5 minutes and come back, or go get coffee or a snack.

I started working from home in January due to the virus so my hours have gone from 10am - 6pm to 8am - 10pm. Working with lights off. Getting up less. :(

Re: Is Dark Mode Such a Good Idea?

#393

Post by shawnz »

marcus_holmes wrote: post #241

Wait. So. "Multiple studies show that light mode is better" trumps my actual experience, with my eyeballs, in my office environment? No. No it doesn't. 1. I don't have that much faith in scientists. Someone trying to p-hack their way to a publishable result that's sensational enough to advance their career is not going to produce good advice for me. 2. Even if they were perfect scientists, they're not using my eyebal…

> Wait. So. "Multiple studies show that light mode is better" trumps my actual experience, with my eyeballs, in my office environment?

Of course. All you are measuring is how comfortable you feel, which is irrelevant. What they are measuring is how well people actually perform on tasks while using dark mode. Just because dark mode feels better to you doesn't imply anything about the latter question.

Re: Is Dark Mode Such a Good Idea?

#394

Post by mytailorisrich »

aasasd wrote: post #114
squarefoot wrote: post #85

"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…

Emitted light isn't a problem per se, because reflected photons aren't somehow radically different from emitted ones. Color and brightness profile is the problem. On a display, you have to have high contrast and brightness for images (that have lots of darker areas), so the system interface is in turn tuned for this high brightness—and then you have to deal with bright white under text. Note how text on e-ink is exce…

The issue with emitted light is that it can be too bright and/or be at a vastly higher brightness than ambient.

When you read a book or a newspaper the brightness naturally fits with ambient light. It's hard on the eyes to read a book on the beach because of the brightness (same effect as a snowy landscape under the sun).

Dark modes usually lower the brightness overall and reduce the contrast with ambient light as well.

Re: Is Dark Mode Such a Good Idea?

#395

Post by dangus »

I don’t need any of the scientific research to choose dark mode, just my own opinion for my own uses.

I can use my phone in bed at night without the brightness being crazy. Case closed.

Also, it looks cooler, especially since my phone has an OLED display (which should also mean lower battery consumption). Case closed even further.

Re: Is Dark Mode Such a Good Idea?

#396

Post by betenoire »

jjice wrote: post #390

> A better remedy for eye strain would be to enable night light on your operating system, which will reduce the your screen’s blue light output. When I got my current Android phone (a year and a half ago), I was so confused as to why my screen got a blue hue at night. After finding out what it was, I figure it would be good to leave on, and I even set it up on my Ubuntu machine. Holy cow do I depend on it now. If I l…

I also have it enabled on my phone and laptops constantly. I also turn down the brightness quite a bit. It always looks wrong for the first few moments, and then it looks perfectly normal. Just like wearing tinted glasses.

Re: Is Dark Mode Such a Good Idea?

#397

Post by marcus_holmes »

yiyus wrote: post #284
pdimitar wrote: post #256

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If you doubt about the rigor of some study, by all means point the errors you find. Sampling. It probably feels good hand-waving away the problem of "does this study apply to everyone?" by introducing the "representative sample" construct, but it has its problems and I doubt they will be ever solved. You can't speak for everyone when you have several thousands samples -- out of ~8 billion people. This is kind of ak…

> This is kind of akin to that artificially absurd example of "on average, every human on Earth has one testicle". No. If I claim everyone has 0.5 testicles, that's bad science. If I randomly choose a large enough number of subjects and report that approximately 50% have two testicles and approximately 50% have no testicles, with error bars, p-values, etc., saying that you don't trust this because I am trying to make…

I apologise then. I didn't mean to insult scientists. I was more trying to point out the difference between The Scientific Method and Academic Practice.

Especially in the social sciences, there's been a whole discussion recently about how our current system of evaluating and rewarding scientists is not benefitting Science. There's even been high-profile commentators disputing whether the social sciences are actually Science at all.

As you're a scientist I won't bother explaining this to you. I'm sure you're aware of the problems here.

So my point is that for a study like this, there's lots of room for playing statistical games in order to achieve a more "sensational" result that is more publishable and more likely to get cited. We know this happens and we know this is especially rife in this area of study. So I have become much more sceptical of social-science studies showing broad generalised results about a subject applying to the whole human race. Especially if those studies contravene some commonly-held view about the subject. My default position has moved from "well, they know what they're doing so there must be something to it", to "I'm going to assume that they p-hacked their way to a sensational result until I have evidence to prove otherwise".

I might be wrong in taking that stance. I will change it if I have better evidence.

Re: Is Dark Mode Such a Good Idea?

#398

Post by hedora »

Why must all sites be gray on gray?

There is a perfectly good brightness slider on my phone. If the white text is too bright, I can adjust it.

Also, I paid extra for a monitor / phone with a decent contrast ratio. Why won’t the internet let me have nice things?

Re: Is Dark Mode Such a Good Idea?

#399

Post by Pet_Ant »

marcus_holmes wrote: post #241

Wait. So. "Multiple studies show that light mode is better" trumps my actual experience, with my eyeballs, in my office environment? No. No it doesn't. 1. I don't have that much faith in scientists. Someone trying to p-hack their way to a publishable result that's sensational enough to advance their career is not going to produce good advice for me. 2. Even if they were perfect scientists, they're not using my eyebal…

> "fighter jet seat problem"

sorry, but is there a link to this? A quick Google showed only issues with the F-35's ejection system.

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