After a long time of being an avid dark mode user, I've made the unexpected switch back to good, old light mode. Ironically, this post was published before this website even had a light mode. Let this be the best indicator for how central dark themes were to my own screen experience!
Most people with a higher affinity towards tech seem to be firmly convinced of the superiority of dark mode, which is very understandable. The mere mention of light mode may bring an unpleasant image of an older family member's phone at maximum screen brightness to your mind.
The battle between dark and light mode was fought on multiple fronts. Let me tell you what convinced me.
As with many things in life, what really matters is the marathon rather than the sprint. The sprint can be a YouTube session on my phone in the evening. No bright lights, no trouble. The marathon is daily life in the long term. A pleasant sprint is one thing, but setting yourself up for a successful marathon is another. Of course, it is possible to just switch between dark and light modes throughout the day. But I prefer to stick with a default and to not change things around too much.
Problem 1: leftover brightness
A dark mode is only as dark as its brightest component. Ideally, you will have a well themed desktop where your web browser, your email client and all of your other software tools look more or less the same. A cohesive desktop landscape without any big, bright spots. So far so good.
This idyll sadly falls apart as soon as you bump into any piece of software that only has a light theme. One example I remember is the browser version of Microsoft OneNote at some point in the past (not sure if they solved that by now). In this case, we are talking about a tool made by a multi-billion dollar corporation that, for some reason, had no dark mode. Nothing prevents a more obscure piece of software (or a website) from giving your eyes a tough time. You may end up with something like a 90:10 ratio of dark and light components throughout your desktop, which means that you are regularily getting a blast of strong light into your darkness-adjusted eyes.
Even if you go out of your way to meticulously theme each and every last software component on your desktop, you may be far from done. If you are surrounded by white walls or if you have a window behind your screen, that can be a real symmetry breaker next to even the best and most cohesive dark theme. So, rather than continuing to put effort into dimming my surroundings, I made the switch. So far, it feels more harmonic and wholesome. Afterall, we need light.
The problem of bright surfaces around and behind your screen carries over to using your phone outside. On a sunny day, any bright or reflective surfaces can really upset your dark mode experience.
Problem 2: privacy screen protectors
As someone who uses public transportation here in Germany, I often find myself sitting in a train with people around me. In 2026, we have good and modern screens with seriously good viewing angle stability. That makes it really easy to see what is on your neighbor's phone screen. To navigate around this issue, I got these privacy screen protectors for some of my devices. With these on, they have a significantly narrower viewing angle. If someone is looking from too much of an angle (let's say 30+ degrees), they will see a darkened and muddied version of my screen - or nothing at all.
While this solution is quite effective, it comes with a downside. It decreases my phone's overall brightness, making the screen even harder to read when the dark theme is enabled. In addition to that, I have set my phone to greyscale in order to make it less stimulating, which further decreases the screen's readability. So, light mode it is!
How it is going so far
The draft for this post was created a bit over 2 weeks before posting it. So far, no regrets :)