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Comment by NiagaraThistle | Hacker News Reader

I'm not sure how old "as you get older" is, but as at 43 and after a decade+ of staring at my computer programming every, I can say that darm mode is the worst and I find it more difficult to read white/light text on black/dark backgrounds. Same with consuming any content on a dark background. Some sites look aesthetically pleasing in Dark mode, but I'd never choose to consume content on them.

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Yeah, I'm in my 40s too and I find dark mode very difficult to read, especially when I have to read code or write it. Even at night when I'm sitting in the darkness.

I do use flux [0] though, because the default monitor brightness is too bright for me, even in broad daylight, never mind at night. For my smartphone I use the Twilight app, which isn't as good but better than nothing. Not sure about the whole blue light thing but it's very easy on my eyes, much better than dark mode.

[0] https://justgetflux.com/

At 55, I vastly prefer dark modes...I generally find light modes too bright, too harsh.. Also, 'light modes' seem to differ a lot more in color then dark modes. Seems like you always have to fiddle with the contrast since some sights are bright white, and others are cream.

I'm about your age and also I can't read on dark mode. It really burns my eyes, in a way that I can't read anything in standard mode for minutes.

grammar edit

I think that the dark mode advantage for bad eyesight is specific to things like cataracts that cause haze. So you probably don't have any such condition.

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