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We’re All in ‘Dark Mode’ NowHow light-on-black became a way of lifeBy Ian Bogost
Illustration by Giacomo Bagnara
January 2, 2025The sun is setting on computers. In October, Google finally—finally—rolled out a new black-background view for its Calendar app. This is just the latest in a string of recent software darkenings. In July, Wikipedia went light-on-dark. And a few years before that, we got dark-theme Google Search. Since 2017, night has fallen on Slack, Reddit, YouTube, Twitter, and mobile Gmail too. Even Microsoft went dark. One by one, the bright, white backgrounds that have defined these and all computer interfaces since the advent of the Macintosh have been slipping into the shadows.
Dark mode has its touted benefits: Dimmer screens mean less eye strain, some assert; and on certain displays (including most smartphones), showing more black pixels prolongs battery life. Dark mode also has its drawbacks: Reading lots of text is more difficult to do in white-on-black. But even if these tradeoffs might be used to justify the use of inverted-color settings, they offer little insight into those settings’ true appeal. They don’t tell us why so many people suddenly want their screens, which had glowed bright for years, to go dark. And they’re tangential to the story of how, in a fairly short period of time, we all became creatures of the night mode. . ."
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January 2, 2025
Dark mode has its touted benefits: Dimmer screens mean less eye strain, some assert; and on certain displays (including most smartphones), showing more black pixels prolongs battery life.
Themes & Dark Mode - by Sean - Evidence Newsletter
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