After reading some scientific stuff, I kind of understood that to not damage your eyes, the best is to keep the same brightness level when your sight switches from a context to another.
Which means that during the day, light mode is supposed to be healthier for your eyes, because you're switching between your monitor and somewhere else in the room.
And this means that on your computer, you should avoid switching from a dark window to a light window, or vice versa. But while it's easy to have 100% of your content in light theme (well.. 99% due to Spotify), the opposite seems more complicated. So, choosing to use dark mode as possible will force a switch dark <-> light from times to times.
Besides, light mode is much more readable in the sun light, when you need the maximum amount of brightness.
The only reason I can find to use dark mode is to use less energy, especially with OLED screens (for longer battery life or ecological reasons).
Like others said, there is also a fashion component, dark modes are visually nice if you ask me.
Back in college I used to enjoy coding on a green-screen VT220 (fluorescent green on dark glass) but I don't think I'd go back...
Since I work probably 14 hours/day on my computer, it starts to matter. At some point, I simply couldn't focus on the screen, even with my glasses on. And at that point I switched to dark mode. And it's slowly been better.
However, if this is not an issue for you, by all means, don't use it :D
> Besides, light mode is much more readable in the sun light
Kind of missing the point here.
Why would you want something readable in sunlight... be the mode that you use at nighttime?
White is harsh to my eyes, no matter the brightness. Especially at night. So I tend to find a dark mode solution regardless of what I am using. I have several stylus schemes that enable a dark mode on sites that don't have one.
I've been using Adwaita-dark as my theme in xUbuntu for years, as well. Before that, before Win10 took the ability away, all of my Windows themes were configured to be darker. Going back to the late 80s.
Original DOS could be considered "dark mode," after all... it's just white text on a black background.
Terminals, too.
The 'hype' basically amounts to: "The OS lets us set a theme without us using third party options." Before the OS, app or site has an integrated dark mode option, you bet your pretty penny we've been looking for other ways to make it happen.
They say that black on white is better because the cornea tightens giving better focus. However in my experience as a developer you tend to sit in front of a screen for hours. Bright themes get tiring after a while, even in well lit rooms. Having said that I don't prefer white on black. I actually have off white on dark grey.
Example: https://i.imgur.com/YPGYzGJ.png
The only way I can work as a software engineer is to have the screen be relatively dark (dark themes on code editors, terminal, github, or pretty much any app I use extensively). That said, I don't really need "dark mode" on an OS (e.g. macOS). Making menu bars etc. dark has a pretty minimal effect; the vast majority of the screen is code editor / terminal 90% of the time, and that's what really matters to me.
I have used it even in some in Microsoft Word with the white over dark blue "mode" or "theme, but I think they removed it in Office 2010 (and annoyed me a lot). At least in the last Office versions it has the black theme that do practically the same.
I believe you could track this fairly reliably to the introduction of dark mode on iOS a year or two ago. At this point most platforms support native dark/light mode, including via browser preferences. So it's become more of an expectation that sites should support it.
1.0 1.0 0.0 1.0 1.0
now, blur it just a bit
1.0 0.8 0.4 0.8 1.0
you'll notice that instead of 100% contrast in the center, it's only 60%, which is just barely enough contrast to see. Why the blur? Old eyes with stuff floating in them, along with the slow but certain onset of cataracts
do the same thing in dark mode
0.0 0.0 1.0 0.0 0.0
0.0 0.2 0.6 0.2 0.0
The contrast in the middle is still 100%, even with blurring because most of the page isn't white pixels.
The older you get, the more aware you become of accessibility issues, especially if you've learned to dread the phrase "new normal" from personal experience.
The problem is most "dark modes" don't actually include black, so it's only part way there.
Now that i have a decent IPS, i don't need it anymore.
2. Light mode attracts more insects at night.
seriously, IMHO my eyes feel less tired with a darker display after many many hours of screentime.
