The status quo holds onto many ideas that, frankly, don’t have much use in the modern world. Be it Daylight Savings Time or standardized testing, various concepts that once served a purpose have been made irrelevant by changes in culture, technology, and tradition.
One school of thought may say if something’s not broken, there’s no reason to fix it. A more progressive school of thought, however, would say there’s no reason to keep something around it it doesn’t serve anyone’s purpose. Let’s take a look at other antiquated ideas like Daylight Savings Time that we should retire for good. (For a blast from the past, discover the biggest American headlines from 1970.)
To compile a list of antiquated ideas we should retire like Daylight Savings Time, 24/7 Tempo consulted a range of lifestyle, education, and news publications including NPR.com, Brookings.edu, and MIT News. Then, we confirmed aspects of our research using sites like the Weekly Humorist and the U.S. Department of the Interior.
Daylight Savings Time
Daylight Savings Time first came into practice with a 1918 bill called the Standard Time Act. This introduced the idea of a seasonal time shift, which was used to conserve energy resources during wartime. Seven months later, the bill was repealed. It took until after World War II for it to come back into use with the Uniform Time Act of 1966. This established the yearly time change. While many people believe it was created for the benefit of farmers, agriculture lobbyists remain some of its strongest opponents.
That’s because the clock change introduces unwelcome challenges to the schedule of dairy cattle. Perhaps the lobbyists are right. There are several reasons daylight savings time should be abolished. For one, wartime energy conservation no longer applies. In terms of people’s health, many doctors say our internal clocks align better with standard time. When our bodies attune to a natural circadian rhythm, we get better, more productive sleep cycles.
The Electoral College
Since the country’s inception, legislators and politicians have argued over the efficacy of the Electoral College. Under its system, each state is assigned a quantity of votes proportional to its size. In theory, this gives bigger states an accurate representation of voting power. It also serves as a compromise between the votes of the populace and the votes of Congress. In practice, however, the Electoral College requires the good faith of the electoral voters but they don’t always vote as promised. This can result in disputed elections, which occurred in 2000 and 2016.
The United States has held onto its Electoral College voting system dearly but without much reason. According to a recent poll by the PEW Research Center, 63% of Americans would rather see the President win by popular vote. Furthermore, other countries that once used the electoral college switched to popular elections centuries ago. While the Electoral College is supposed to prevent tyranny of the majority, it prevents the people’s choices from being truly considered.
High School Reunions
Class Reunions, typically High School or College Reunions, originated in the middle of the 19th century. They were a way for friends and students to stay connected after graduation. The first reunions happened on a grander scale than modern iterations. In fact, novelist Joseph Conrad got his idea for “Heart of Darkness” while attending a high school reunion expedition into Africa. Over time, these reunions consolidated into simple meet-ups years after graduation for catching up, networking, and more.
Nowadays, however, the class reunion has become an outdated idea that can be retired. With the advent of the internet and social media, most people remain in regular contact with their school compadres. What once required an in-person meeting can be accomplished with a few clicks of a button. If you see your old classmates every day on your phone, is a reunion really necessary? (For final meetings between viewers and actors, explore the most memorable TV show endings in history.)
Single-Use Plastics
Since the accidental discovery of polyethylene in an English chemical plant in 1993, plastics like it have taken over the world. Slowly but surely, plastic found its way into shopping bags, containers, and a laundry list of other commonly used items. As the years went on, however, scientists realized that perhaps plastic wasn’t the best material to use. It doesn’t degrade like natural materials so it pollutes the environment to an increasingly dangerous degree.
The giant floating island of plastic in the Pacific Ocean called the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is a telling sign of plastic’s permanence. Now, microplastics are being found in the deepest tissues of the human body. There’s no telling where plastic might end up. Reusable plastic is one thing, but single-use plastic is an antiquated idea that should be retired. Science has discovered better materials, ones that degrade instead of polluting our bodies and our environment.
Standardized Testing
Technically, standardized testing originated in ancient China during the Han Dynasty. There, imperial examinations would use a standard criterion of questions to select employees for the state bureaucracy. Over the centuries, standardized testing found favor among various cultures including the United States. It became a simple way to test educational levels on a broad scale. It was efficient and allowed for all students to be graded against the mean.
At the same time, however, many people have come out of the woodwork to oppose standardized testing. They say it’s culturally and socioeconomically biased, has a poor predictive quality, and does not give accurate indications of intelligence or ability. Perhaps these opponents are correct. Standardized tests give a good read on rote memory skills but don’t account for creativity, leadership, collaboration, or critical thinking.
Blue Laws
If you can’t buy alcohol in your county on Sundays, you have Blue Laws to thank. These laws restrict our outright ban activities or purchases on certain days, usually for religious reasons. The earliest forms of blue laws likely come from the Biblical Old Testament, such as not working on the Sabbath (Saturday). Despite a presumed separation between church and state in America, the Supreme Court has upheld Blue Laws as constitutional.
This ruling has been opposed on the state and local level, however, with state courts routinely striking down Blue Laws as unconstitutional or unenforceable. Perhaps the Supreme Court should follow suit. Blue Laws restricting dress or the purchase of alcohol on certain days are a holdover from a religious past and directly violate the separation between church and state. Unlike other entries on this list, blue laws are truly antiquated.
Voting in Person
Up until recently, voting in person was the only way to do it. Much like censuses, in-person voting was the one way to ensure that the people’s choices were heard. In the modern world, however, voting in person has become antiquated. Thanks to innovations like mail-in ballots and absentee ballots, voting in person has started to disappear.
According to the PEW Research Center, only 54% of people voted in person for the 2020 Presidential Election. Furthermore, only 26% of people voted in person on Election Day proper. If voting can be accomplished by several means, why drag yourself down to a crowded polling station?
Paying Tolls
Tolls on highways and other roads were a great way for governments to collect tax revenue because of choke points that accounted for every passing car. In the modern world, however, they seem like an antiquated notion. Why stop for a toll box when the legion of cameras can read your license plate and send you a bill in the mail?
Signatures
Since humans first discovered writing, they have left a mark of their identity in the form of signatures. This serves a useful purpose; it provides a record of who agreed to what. With modern technology, however, signatures can easily be replaced by eye-scanning software, biometric data, and other digital footprints that do just as good a job as signatures in recording people’s agreements and access points. (For products with staying power, discover the most successful inventions of the 1960s.)