We’re All in ‘Dark Mode’ Now

The sun is setting on computers. In October, Google finally—finally—rolled out a new black-background view for its Calendar app. This is just the latest in a string of recent software darkenings. In July, Wikipedia went light-on-dark. And a few years before that, we got dark-theme Google Search. Since 2017, night has fallen on Slack, Reddit, YouTube, Twitter, and mobile Gmail too. Even Microsoft went dark. One by one, the bright, white backgrounds that have defined these and all computer interfaces since the advent of the Macintosh have been slipping into the shadows.

Dark mode has its touted benefits: Dimmer screens mean less eye strain, some assert; and on certain displays (including most smartphones), showing more black pixels prolongs battery life. Dark mode also has its drawbacks: Reading lots of text is more difficult to do in white-on-black. But even if these tradeoffs might be used to justify the use of inverted-color settings, they offer little insight into those settings’ true appeal. They don’t tell us why so many people suddenly want their screens, which had glowed bright for years, to go dark. And they’re tangential to the story of how, in a fairly short period of time, we all became creatures of the night mode.

Computer programmers, for their part, have always liked the dark. Back when offices were the only places to work, some software companies housed their engineers in what I remember being called “programmer pits”: rooms with closed doors where all the lights were extinguished. In open-plan workplaces, where the pits could not exist, programmers who preferred darkness would go to great lengths to create or preserve it. I recall some plotting to remove the bulbs from overhead lights near their workstations.

In the 1990s and early 2000s, I managed a large team of software engineers. They wrote programs for computer desktops, the web, and the handheld devices that predated smartphones. I remember one of them was so averse to lighting that he draped a thick blanket over his monitor and torso, creating a makeshift cave for work. Another built a lighttight cot underneath his cubicle in which to take breaks to recover from the oppressive sun that poured in through office windows. Others merely chose to work very early or very late, under the natural shroud of night.

Why? If I’d asked them, they would probably have said: to reduce distractions and improve focus. Programming a computer is a bit like repairing a very tiny machine with precision tools while looking under a microscope. Quiet and calm help facilitate that process. Programmers may also just prefer the dark. (Some have argued that people with “Aspergers-like” tendencies, which are associated with sensitivity to bright lights, may be especially well suited to the tech industry.)

But even with the environment dimmed, one source of light persists: the computer itself. Its bright glare could potentially disrupt the very act of writing the programs it might run. Perhaps that’s why code-editing software has long offered white-on-black displays or other dimmed-out custom color themes. If you look at depictions of programmers at work in television or film, you’re likely to see white text on black screens. It’s a visual sign of computer professionals at work.

Those of us old enough to remember using command-line text on DOS- or Unix-based computers will recall that light-on-dark displays were, at first, the standard. Surely some of that color scheme’s newfound appeal is pure nostalgia, at least among those users who once typed out documents in WordPerfect or played text-only adventure games such as Zork. To call it “dark mode,” as we do today, and sell it as a wellness tool is a somewhat recent innovation.

[Read: I wrote this on a 30-year-old computer]

Starting about 10 years ago, the option of a dark or dimmer background began to be included as a system-wide setting on laptops and smartphones. Microsoft launched its Windows “Night Light” mode, with warmer colors, in 2017; Apple followed with its own Dark Mode shortly after. Once that happened, individual software applications followed suit. The light-on-dark appearance could now be marketed as a way to heal your circadian rhythms, but its essential function was the same as ever: a softer, less oppressive glow for people who might be staring at their screens for many hours at a time.

The number of people doing so was increasing every day. Even 20 years ago, a computer was still a tool used only occasionally. Desktop computers sat on desks, to be consulted when needed. Even at work, many actions that are now carried out only via computer—such as filing expense reports or taking part in mandatory office trainings—happened in meatspace instead. Home life was also a mixed-media affair. Television was viewed on a television set, through a set-top box or DVD player. Voice calls were made on phones still found on desks or attached to walls. And other ordinary activities, such as paying bills and managing kids’ school affairs, still were carried out on paper, in person—not online.

[Read: Universities have a computer-science problem]

Between the early aughts and the late 2010s, the rest of humankind caught up with computer programmers. Communication now takes place on a screen. So does knowledge work. Also shopping, entertainment, and the management of daily life. According to one report, Americans checked their phones more than 200 times a day this year, an increase of 40 percent over last year. In short, an ordinary person’s habits of computer use have grown to be a lot more like those of the previously strange guys who were writing software with me at the dawn of the internet.

So dark modes spread to serve our changing circumstances. There’s no longer any need to drape a blanket on your office desk; soon enough, every app will achieve this effect on its own. Software companies may even start competing to produce the most effective artificial night. It’s now gotten to the point where Microsoft can engage in dark-mode ballyhoo: Its own “Black” theme “provides the darkest experience,” the company boasts; “if you’re in search of dark mode, this is the theme for you.”

Maybe the dark-mode age was inevitable. The bright glow of computers was tolerable—even thrilling—when it still felt new, but as lit-up screens suffused our every waking act, their light was doomed to overwhelm us. Given that software developers are the people who develop software, and their software-making software had been in dark mode from the start, the latest trend should come as no surprise. Of course darkness would have spread from their desktops to everyone’s. From day into night, we are all programming computers now.