Time display in menu faint

[OldCorpse]

I have a 15” M2 MBA, running Sonoma 14.2.

The time displayed in the menu right corner is notably fainter than all the other items on the menu bar. It is so faint that it’s hard for me to read unless I bend really close to the screen. This seems bonkers to me, but hey maybe it’s just me.

Is this a Sonoma thing? An MBA thing? Something not right with my system?

I’m assuming it’s just the design Apple chose. Is there a setting where I can change to have the clock be brighter, so that, you know, one can actually SEE the time?

Maybe it doesn’t bother anyone else, and maybe it’s a petty gripe, but it’s really bugging me.

Thank you!

 

[Nermal]

It's the same "brightness" as everything else on my system (14.1.2).

 

[chabig]

In the past, having Do Not Disturb turned on would dim the date and time. I don't think Sonoma does this any more, but it might depend on System Settings > Control Center > Focus.

 

[MBAir2010]

Is this a Sonoma thing? An MBA thing? Something not right with my system?

This time faintness started in Ventura on my MacBook Air m1
so annoying I used a widget on the lower right corner of a active clock!

 

[OldCorpse]

In the past, having Do Not Disturb turned on would dim the date and time. I don't think Sonoma does this any more, but it might depend on System Settings > Control Center > Focus.

Thank you chabig - you were right, toggling to "show when active" or "always show" gets me back to normal visibility and not faint anymore... whew! What is the point of dimming the time display in association with focus "never show in menu" completely escapes me. Oddly, you can't control that behavior by going into the "clock" setting, where you can do all sorts of things with the time display, but not this. Weird. Throw this into the heap of "bizarre choices by Apple".

Here's another one that bugged me until I figured out how to correct it. Anytime I'd click on the desktop when I had a bunch of windows open, all the windows would disappear. Countless times I'd click on the desktop for whatever reason, for example, just to deselect a particular window, everything would disappear. Would happen dozens of times a day. Very aggravating. Turns out, it was a default setting:

System Settings --> Desktop & Dock --> Desktop & Stage Manager --> Click Wallpaper to reveal desktop: toggle to Only in Stage Manager. That stopped the disappearing act. Weird. I mean, I've never even used Stage Manager, so why have a weird default setting in Stage Manager control the behavior outside of the Stage Manager just to aggravate the user. Another bizarre choice by Apple. There's more, but you gradually learn it as time goes by./shrug/