In this column, “Just putting this out there…,” we write about the odd ways we engage with tech and the unpopular opinions we form about it. You can read the rest of the articles in this series here.

You can barely move for dark mode news stories these days. Gmail? Dark mode. Instagram? Testing dark mode. iPhones? Dripping in dark mode.

It’s disgusting. And you, readers, should know better.

“Oh,” you say, shuffling from foot to foot. “Disgusting? Hardly. I actually really like dark mode. It looks great.”

Oh you poor, sweet, beautiful fool. Are you the sort of person that still has a Matrix-style screensaver on your Linux desktop computer? Because that’s what you’re communicating to me with dark mode.

“Wow, that’s not very nice,” you say, with a sharp edge to your voice. “Just because my aesthetic isn’t ‘cool’ doesn’t mean I shouldn’t be catered to. Also,