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[–] 10 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (8 children)

i still think timezones were a mistake, and that they shouldn't exist period. I have a long thread about this from an earlier post about timezones as well amusingly enough.

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  • [–] 46 points 2 years ago (40 children)

    As a social construct, I like that I can be anywhere in the world and know that around noon is probably an appropriate time for lunch, etc.

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  • [–] 12 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Time is an illusion, lunch time doubly so.

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  • [–] 42 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    Imagine you're watching a movie, and the main character turns over to their bedside clock and it shows 4:13 am. With time zones we all understand what part of the day that is and instinctively can relate to the situation.

    Without timezones, every locality would have a different shorthand and cultural understanding of what times mean what. Or they'd adopt a second system that helps transcend that but that's just inventing timezones again...

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago (1 child)

    actually, this is pretty funny. This is the ONE instance so far, that i've found where timezones actually do something productive, and it's in a movie.

    Too bad movies never use shit like ambient moon lighting, or darkness. It's not like those convey what time of night it is or anything. I mean seriously, if you're bound to showing a clock to display the time, rather than make a point, you're not a very good writer.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago (3 children)

    Too bad movies never use shit like ambient moon lighting, or darkness

    Probably because people's beds tend to be inside... Plus darkness can mean morning or evening or middle of the night or something else (imagine the person notices it's dark, looks at the clock and it shows 1pm. We know something's off because we all experience 1pm as early afternoon).

    The point isn't that timezones are only good for movies, the point was that they help convey that cultural understanding very effectively across the world. Having a common understanding of what certain numbers on a clock mean and have that be universal can help convey quite a bit of information. 11am means "late morning" in a specific way that you could probably spend a paragraph describing.

    Sure, without timezones I'd know what their clock says in London without having to use Google, but I'd still have to Google what time of day it is there and apply an offset to understand exactly what part of the day it is (which is what timezones do already). It's no easier, plus we lose the ability to culturally share the same reference points.

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  • [–] 21 points 2 years ago (4 children)

    Are you thinking about daylight savings time? I'd agree there, but timezones absolutely make sense, and we've always used some version of it. "See you at noon" has a sort of built in timezone, as does sunrise and sunset. We (all human societies) relate hours to the day in a similar, albeit more regular way. If you did away with timezones, you'd replace a minor inconvenience with a monstrous one. Everyone uses what, GMT? Naah

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  • [–] 5 points 2 years ago (4 children)

    I like it when i miss the train because town A's time is way off from toen C's time

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  • [–] 3 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    I honestly can't tell if you are pro or anti time zones from this comment.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago

    Nobody likes missing a train.
    In this scenario, missing a train is caused by timezones.
    It's sarcasm. So against timezones.
    Maybe, against more granular timezones, ok with status-quo, but would be happy if all official correspondence happened with UTC.
    Possibly completely against timezones.
    Maybe a mix of all of the above

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