Do We Really Need Time Zones?

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Published 2019-03-19

In this video, I look at the question: "Do we really need time zones?". Time zones cause a lot of problems, and in the last few years, some have called for them to be completely abolished, suggesting instead that the entire world shold just use the eact same time.

I start this video by very briefly talking about how time zones came to be, before outlining some of the potential upside to a world without time zones... I finish the video off by looking at some of the difficulties of ditching time zones, arguing that actually, it's less complicated with time zones.

This video is sponsored by Dashlane: go to www.dashlane.com/wonderwhy download for free, and you can get 10% off Premium with the offer code "WONDERWHY"

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All Comments (21)

@briandoolittle3422 5 years ago

Love the second segment. You really covered all the important parts of daylight savings.
@GregoryKarastergios 5 years ago

Surprised you actually made this video after almost 5 years
@bloodspilla55 5 years ago

See you all on May 22nd, 2021 when WonderWhy posts his next video
@vooran 5 years ago

I don't see how the removing of timezones would eradicate the traffic jams seeing how you made the same argument that we'd just wake up the same time as before sun wise, we would still have our work hours as usual and people would still end their days at the same time. 8 hours is still 8 hours even if we wake up at 18:00 or 13:00 =P Although as a whole liked the video =D
@WolvesBrandon 5 years ago

Me, from England: "I woke up at 7 am today" My friend, from Australia: "Is that... is that bad?"
@WonderWhy 5 years ago

Way back in 2014, I made a video aobut the world's strangest time zones (https://youtu.be/uW6QqcmCfm8) and at the end of the video I posed the question: do we even need time zones? After nearly 5 years since the video upload, I decided to finally tackle this question. This was no easy task. In fact, this was one of my one challenging videos to date, and is quite a bit different to the kind of video I normally make. A video was a argumentative style, which relied a lot on opinion and conjecture, as opposed to clearly defined and established facts, was not easy. I start the video by trying to make the case for abolishing time zones and the potential upside of having one time for the entire globe, before then transitioning into making the case IN FAVOUR of the status quo, in which I suggest that a universal time zone may in fact cause more problems than it solves. Another reason this video is quite different from most, is the use of stock footage. Since this video isn't about history or geography, there were far fewer maps, graphs, timelines, etc. to use, and so I understand that this video contains a lot of 'filler' footage that isn't directly related to what I'm saying. This was necessary given the nature of the video. Anyway, this video took me quite a bit out of my comfort zone, but I think that's definitely a good thing. I always want to try new things and experiment, and if that means the odd video flops, it's a risk that I think is worth taking. I hope you guys did enjoy the video, and if not... well, I doubt I'll be making many more like this, so hopefully the next one will be more to your taste! Feel free to share your opinion on whether or not we need time zones! I'd love to hear them. Be sure to give some love to today's sponsor, Dashlane: www.dashlane.com/wonderwhy. Even just downloading the app is a huge help to my channel, and it's completely free, with no card details needed or anything. Thanks to everyone for watching and subscribing!
@bateekha123 5 years ago

My man you’re running on your own time zone uploading like this
@iammrbeat 5 years ago

This video honestly blew my mind.
@TyrannoNoddy 5 years ago

"Do we need daylight savings?" "NO" excellent
@SupremeLeaderKimJong-un 5 years ago

My country used to have its own time zone until President Moon persuaded me to change it back to Japan time. Those were the days....
@jakovvodanovic9165 5 years ago

I liked the second part of the video because it pointed out all the logical mistakes made in the first part.
@RealLifeW0rld 5 years ago

9:45 UK - Can't decide it wants to use the metric system or not so uses an awkward mix of both. 😂😂 This made my day and it is absolutely right.
@KasabianFan44 5 years ago

9:45 Myanmar doesn’t use imperial. It uses its own measurements system.
@dudewaldo4 5 years ago

You totally changed my mind dude. I've been thinking about a universal time zone for a while and now I see that indeed, having the sun high at noon is far more important than the benefits you would gain
@isirlaughsalot2675 5 years ago

When wonderwhy uploads, a puppy is born.
@Jame5man 5 years ago

Daylight Savings can go straight to hell
@kingbibihabibi 5 years ago

For travel and coordinating meetings and events across timezones it might sound easier to just use one universal time, but in practice all this would do is require that people learn what arbitrary universal times people in other places sleep, eat, etc. Timezones actually function as a useful shorthand for this now by lining up the same components of the day with the same numbers, so we should just keep them. For instance, a tourist guidebook might now say "the time in Sydney is UTC+10." Easy, you can do the conversion in your head. Without timezones the book would have to say "In Sydney, people generally sleep between 09:00 and 17:00 and eat lunch between 01:00 and 04:00."
@TheBigRedskull 5 years ago

Obligatory “He’s alive” comment
@MIO9_sh 5 years ago

tamezones are pretty messed up..
@naveenraj2008eee 5 years ago

Hi wonder why. How are you? .you uploaded midnight. So i watched when i woke up. Nice details. Awesome explanation. Thanks for your video..😀