Saves your battery. Easy on eyes. Dark theme is just nicer, what am I missing?
Pretty much anytime I have to read some white or light grey text on a dark background it is punishing on my eyes and I end up with light-lines in my vision temporarily after. I’ve given up on entire websites because they only have a dark theme and the simplified read mode doesnt work. On occasion, when I really needed to read a lot of text from somewhere I will copy and paste into a word processor. Light mode, or anything with dark text on light background, doesn’t strain my eyes nearly so much.
I personally belong to the dark theme cult, but this spring we had to rent a flat for a while where ambient light conditions were just horrible. For the first time in my life I just HAD to use light themes everywhere because dark themes would just make my eyes hurt after a while. So maybe people who prefer light themes just spend most of their time somewhere with dim uneven lights?
I live in Australia, very sunny most of the year. Light theme feels like I’m shining a flashlight into my eyes even during the day. I just don’t understand light theme.
Depends on your device
My 5 year old laptop’s screen is so dim that on bright days you fully can’t see dark mode, but my phone and monitor work just fine on dark mode on all but the brightest days
Light theme in the day, dark theme at night. Switched automatically by sunset/sunrise time.
I get the impression that the preference for dark mode tends to be more common in Millennial/Gen-Z men.
As an older Gen-X, I cannot stand having dark mode on during the day or light mode at night. I use auto whenever it is available. I don’t know why!
My daughter and her female friends do not have dark mode during the day. My younger coworkers often have dark mode at work, but only the male ones.
I’m curious about those who use dark mode all the time: were you born after 1980 and male?
1995/m here and I exclusively use dark mode. Preferably white text on a black background (sometimes called LED dark mode). I’m not sure if your generation + gender theory holds but I will say that the games and software I played growing up used a combination of dark and light for UI and menus.
Interesting point, maybe people with more gaming growing up prefer the dark mode. Much of the gaming era came around after my time!
Female, born before 1980, prefer dark mode, no wallpaper.
I find that most apple users i know use light and android users tend to use dark. Apple users care less about customisation maybe? I was excited to finally get widgets on my work iPad. I told several apple friends about it and they just looked at me blankly.
Gen X woman here, I started using dark mode a couple of years ago when I was really suffering from Long Covid, and using any kind of screen was a trigger for fatigue so bad I’d need to go lie down and sleep before I collapsed. I read up on managing screen work with fatigue conditions, and dark mode was suggested. As soon as I tried it it was like loads of noise went quiet in my brain, and it just felt calmer. I also suspect I may be autistic and / or ADHD and this may also be a factor. I have to have everything on dark mode now, light mode just feels so shouty and loud.
Saves battery only on oled, but that’s a valid point. and easier in eyes is highly debatable! I absolutely prefer light theme at bright environments but dark theme at night.
