Technology

Light mode is likely just your personal preference, and there's nothing wrong with it.

I used dark themes/color schemes, long before there was a dark mode for everything. I was surprised when it finally became a thing and the new generation of dark themes was flawless (good bye unaddressed bright backgrounds which make everything unreadable!). So I can continue sitting in the Dark while not being blinded by a bright screen.

Light mode is pretty hard on the eyes in dim lighting, the same way dark mode is in full sun. Health-wise, it’s best to decrease the amount of light as bed time approaches and that includes screens beaming light into our face.

My computer defaults to light mode every morning and then I toggle dark later in the day when it becomes the more comfortable setting. So, for me it’s not really about “preference”.

Very happy to have dark mode Wikipedia for late night queries!

I'm an old fogey who grew up reading physical books and newspapers but I absolutely need dark mode on backlit displays. I despise light mode.

I hate dark mode, but it's because I have a pretty bad astigmatism. Dark mode makes all text look like several mirror images swimming around each other, whereas light mode is fine.

How old are you? I'm in my early 30s, definitely grew up with computers most of my life, and internet almost as long, but also read plenty of physical paper books. I greatly prefer darker color schemes.

That said, I'm also a software developer so I'm a bit biased and learned long ago that dark mode is much easier on the eyes when coding for hours on end, so maybe I'm just used to it.

Or is it more of an age-gated thing

Depends how old you consider old, maybe? Computers back in the day were pretty universally light text on a dark background. VIC-20 was an exception but then even Commodore backpedaled on that with the 64. But you might have had a different experience and are only remembering things like Mac OS or Amiga, or Windows, and maybe that has influenced your preference. 🤷‍♀️ To each their own, anyway.

I think dark mode for me stops me getting as many migraines as I did on light mode.

The way I think about reading text is that on dark mode you’re looking for light (white text) in darkness (the black background), whereas with light mode you’re looking for the absence of light (black text) on a background of pure light.

I don't think you can make a universal statement of dark versus light. Some programs' dark modes suck so I use their light mode. Some programs' light modes suck so I use their dark mode. Hell, some programs' high contrast modes are so good I use those despite not having any major (uncorrected) visual impairments. Take GitHub. Their high contrast mode is nice and not disgusting. IntelliJ IDEA's dark mode is good. Eclipse's light mode is good. It all just depends on the program.

And Solarized sucks ass. There, I said it.

Having read lots of books, I tend to prefer printed text a lot. Yet I still use dark mode as much as possible; it's the glare. It's irritating to read something on a white, glaring surface. Paper doesn't have that.

I'll read Wikipedia on e-ink, but on LCD I'll use dark mode.

As a Gen Z who is the same - I really don't think it is age-related.

It depends a lot on your screen, and your lifting situation. Black on white is better in day light, white on black is much better on LED screens (as opposed to backlit LCD or CRT monitors).

There are times I prefer light mode but dark mode feels better designed.
A few days ago I switched to light mode because it was too sunny outside and switched right back after I was done. The Android UI was unbaerable for me.

Look at Answer in Progress's video on dark mode, the initial question is a different one about design, but it goes a bit in the difference and dis- versus advantages between dark and light mode.

I prefer light mode because dark mode gives me a raging headache in under 10 minutes, not enough contrast or something, I'm not sure. It's bad enough that if I'm pairing with someone and they use dark mode I've gotta frequently look away or do something like a shared follow mode where I use a light theme on my end - it sucks.

And maybe the science is old now, but in HS I did a report on eye strain and light backgrounds are typically better across the board. But who knows now.