Changing the clocks and technology to boot

March 8, 2026 - 22:14

Come Sunday morning, the clocks will have sprung ahead an hour, and I cannot help but be envious of the seamless transition awaiting most of our modern devices. Smartphones, computers, and connected appliances will update themselves quietly in the night, oblivious to the human disruption this shift entails. This biannual ritual highlights a growing chasm between our automated technology and our own biological rhythms.

While our gadgets adjust with precision, we are left grappling with the tangible effects: lost sleep, disrupted schedules, and a week of general fatigue. The debate over the necessity of Daylight Saving Time continues among legislators and health experts, who cite studies on increased health risks and economic impacts following the change. Yet, the practice persists, creating an odd annual moment where society collectively stumbles while its tools operate perfectly.

This contrast serves as a poignant reminder of our complex relationship with the systems we create. We engineer environments of incredible efficiency for our machines but often overlook the human cost of adhering to outdated timekeeping traditions. As we manually adjust the few analog clocks left in our homes and cars, the exercise feels increasingly anachronistic, a stubborn holdover from a past not yet ready to fully sync with the future it built.