On Sunday, November 5th, Americans will surely wake up feeling far more rested than any other day of the year, as the annual "fall back" arrives. As another end to daylight savings time approaches, many look forward to this additional hour of (much needed) sleep. The state commission of Massachusetts, however, is looking to quit daylight savings altogether, and plans to vote on Wednesday, November 1st, on the topic.
The argument is structured mostly on the fact that farming, specifically harvesting cranberries, depends on the sunlight, so if the sun sets at an earlier time, farmers must end their day an hour earlier. This whole idea would put Massachusetts an hour ahead of the Eastern time zone, and it would join the Atlantic time zone.
Daylight savings is an outdated idea. The main purpose of it originally was to cut down on the demand for lights and electricity, however, at this point, an extra hour of daylight is not going to keep most Americans from using some form of electricity. Although outdated, Massachusetts should not be making such a drastic choice all alone.
History has shown us time and time again, that one state breaking away from the norm of the country tends to end in failure, and this is a chance to prevent one of those cases. Imagine you're living in Connecticut, or New Hampshire, or anywhere close to Massachusetts, and you are going shopping for the day in Boston, or have a meeting in the city. This works both ways, as someone living in Massachusetts, like myself, knows that driving to surrounding states is fairly common, and deep confusion will be the result.
Massachusetts is a fairly small state, and a change in time zones will impact transportation, entertainment (Patriots' games will start at different times throughout New England... I know, I know), and life as we know it.
Alone, Massachusetts changing time zones due to ditching daylight savings could be extremely harmful to the state. Cranberries are not reason enough for Massachusetts to sustain from changing their clocks come Sunday. Daylight savings as a whole coming to an end is a whole other story... and, well, a whole other article.