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Which time zone is generally used in America to describe a time nationwide and how do people keep track of it? (lemmy.world)

submitted 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) by Badge@lemmy.world to c/AskUSA@discuss.online

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I'm from Germany and the concept of time zones is very foreign to me since we only have one time zone across the country.

As America has multiple time zones I was wondering which time zone is most commonly used to describe a time nationwide. For example if there is a TV show airing at a specific time or someone wants to describe an event happening in a different State.

I often hear people mentioning the Eastern Time (ET) and Pacific Time (PT). Eastern Time understandably applies to the east Coast including New York City. And as far as I understand Pacific Time actually is the Western time including Los Angeles, which also makes me wonder why it's not called "Western Time (WT)".

So I wonder which time is the one people most commonly use across the States.

And how do people keep track of that time zone if they're not living there? Do most people have multiple clocks on their phone or do they Google the time each time or do they calculate when that time is relative to their time in their head?

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[–] ptz@dubvee.org 34 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (3 children)

For national TV networks, they usually only reference two time zones (Eastern and Pacific) and do different broadcast schedules for the east and west coast. On the east coast you'll hear TV shows advertised as "Watch Ow! My Balls! weeknights at 9:30, 8:30 Central". Works similarly on the west coast.

For big, live events (State of the Union, Superbowl, etc), they usually start those at a time that's a compromise. It'll start earlier on the west coast and end later on the east coast. Usually 7PM Eastern is the time chosen for things like that.

And how do people keep track of that time zone if they're not living there?

Mostly just knowing where they are and mental math. I usually only have to deal with time zones for work, and it's typically:

The vendor/company has 24 hour contact points, so I just call whenever
I know the vendor is in Chicago and just subtract an hour in my head from east coast time.
If I'm emailing them, I don't really worry about it unless I'm setting up a meeting. Then I just let the calendar software handle it.

[–] Badge@lemmy.world 8 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Thanks for the insight, that explains a lot🙏

[–] ptz@dubvee.org 1 points 2 days ago

Yeah, it's just not something most of us here really think about; it's kind of "automatic".

Since email, IM, Facebook, etc became the norm for keeping in touch, and conversations became much more asynchronous due to that, time zones are much less of a concern for most people. Before the internet, you might just have a note in your phone number list that Aunt Carol in Arizona is 2 hours behind your time.

That said, it is customary (though not required) when requesting a meeting / call with someone in another time zone to use their local time. e.g. "Can we setup a call to discuss this in detail? How's 2pm your time?"

[–] Ulrich@feddit.org 6 points 2 days ago

GO WAY BAITIN

[–] anonymouse2@sh.itjust.works 4 points 2 days ago (1 children)

A lot of people will disagree with me, but I prefer the remake, Oops!, Me Nuts!, to the classic Ow! My Balls!.

[–] ptz@dubvee.org 1 points 2 days ago

That one's good, too, but have you seen the Telemundo version "Ay yi yi! Mis huevos!" ?