12h ago

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

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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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.
- GO WAY BAITIN
- A lot of people will disagree with me, but I prefer the remake, Oops!, Me Nuts!, to the classic Ow! My Balls!.
- Thanks for the insight, that explains a lot🙏

So I wonder which time is the one people most commonly use across the States.
normal people? there isnt one.
the united states is soo freakin huge the people living in specific time zones dont generally have to care about the others. when we do, you just have to do the math.
they sell lots of multi-faced clocks for this kind of thing.

My favorite is !weedtime@crazypeople.online
/s

There are 4 timezones in the mainland of the USA: eastern, central, mountain, and pacific. For the most part, it doesn't make too much difference. There's no reason for someone on the east coast to need to know what time it is on the west coast anymore than you need to keep track of what time it is in Ireland. Sometimes, you'll call a friend who lives on the opposite coast, and you might have to think for a couple seconds to make sure you aren't calling super late at night or early in the morning, but you don't need to be exactly right about the time for that.
The borders of time zones tend to follow state lines, with some exceptions, so if you live near one, and you want to go to a store or something, you'll probably be used to having to adjust.
For things like big businesses, where you are having meetings with people across the country, any calendar invite you send includes the time zone, so it will automatically get adjusted for.
What makes it a little weird is that some places have daylight savings time, while others don't, so you can have different time even if you are in the same zone. Arizona, for example, is in the mountain time zone and doesnt use daylight savings like their neighbors do, but the Navajo Nation (whose reservation is mostly in arizona) does use daylight savings. The Hopi Nation (who are completely surrounded by the navajo) don't use daylight savings. Basically, you could drive for an hour and change time 4 times.
TL;DR, it doesn't really matter most of the time, and when it does, it's not hard to figure out.
- When we lived in Indiana they didn't do dst. Half the year our evening news came on at 10 and half the year it came on at 11.

The States span from UTC-5 to -10. While the east coast is getting off work Hawaii is taking lunch. There's no way to have a single zone work for the whole country.
So how do we deal?
Well pretty much everything is just referred to in local time. TV shows are scheduled in local time, concerts and events are in local time, meetings with friends are in local time. Quite often this is a non issue. The time zone bands are multiple states wide, so day to day stuff is just..."normal."
What about when it's not?
If you work across time zones your meetings may be scheduled for your team and not you. I have an extra clock on my work computer that helps me keep track with my team, but I also just implicitly adjust times by 2 hours when talking with them.
If you regularly communicate with friends in a different zone you just need to be cognizant of when they get off work--that could be "they get off at 6pm (my local)" or "oh yeah, they're an hour behind, so I'll do some chores first."
If you have to cross into a different zone for a scheduled event. This is probably the most tricky one, especially if you live near a different zone. I find this one the most difficult as the majority of things you'd get a reservation for are handled in local time, so most concerts, restaurant, sports events, you attend will be the time you use throughout the day, but sometimes you end up driving an hour west for a timed entry event and just happen to forget that part of Florida's panhandle does things wrong and you end up arriving at the improper time,
The most common thing to get a little confused about is major televised events like the NYC ball drop, Thanksgiving Day Parade, Inauguration, or the Superbowl. Even so, these are either a set time every occurrence (and you just learn that the ball drops at 10pm instead of midnight) or are advertised at local time (and you have an early or late dinner for your superbowl party).
I know where my friends and family live, and I know where I work. I just have those offsets memorized (like we used to have phone numbers memorized). Given that, I don't really keep a separate clock for personal use and I don't really have to look up the time for anyone.
Finally, the vast majority of the US population lives in either PST or EST zones or Texas (CST) so most people are living their life really only caring about 1 or 2 timezones with any regularity.
- Perfect map. I can't tell you how many times I've argued with people that, yes, I'm in Florida, no, I'm not on Eastern time.
- Also, by and large, time zone offsets are off by a multiple of the hour, so the "math" to adjust for a phone call is at most adding or subtracting 5 from the hour hand. If you don't know any Alaskans or Hawaiians then that drops to +-3.

There is at least one timezone west of pacific that includes Hawaii and Alaska. It either used to be separate or became separate; I forget which.
As another user said, most things are advertised with times for the local timemzone (and sometimes the neighboring one), so it's not a big deal for television or events.
If you want some more fun, look at timezone maps and see all the exceptions for daylight saving time (summertime, basically).
It is weird being outside of the US and hearing my coworkers talk about "what time is it in Amerika now?" Which is always Pacific time (presumably since our main US presence is on the west coast). It always irks me a little.

You’ve got some great replies already, but I haven’t seen an answer to the Pacific Standard vs Western Standard yet.
Long story short; the railway companies came together and named our time zones in the 19th century, and that’s what they chose.
Expounded answer: when the US time zones were being named the West was still being tamed and the Gold Rush was winding down. The time zones looked a lot different back then; the original Pacific time zone was exclusively the coast area.
I’m in the Pacific time zone myself and regularly have to coordinate with friends from other time zones so I felt compelled to answer haha

I've always seen things at a national level get advertised with two times: one for East and West Coast, and then a second, different time, for Central. I don't know why they couldn't also show the thing at 6pm in Central timezones, like they would for a 6pm program for New York and LA; it's not like 6pm isn't 3 hours apart from those two places. 🤷🏻‍♂️

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