Our 11 year old: “Mom, WHAT did you do to your phone?”
Me: “I’m trying something out.”
Our 11 year old: “I mean look at it, what’s the point now? It’s not even fun.”
I could not have planned his response better if I had tried.
I told him not to freak and that I was trying it out with the iPad too. He went on to explain that the trouble with my “experiment” was that he identifies apps by their color and now it just all blends together and he doesn’t even want to look for any of it. “It’s like too boring.” Oh really, I thought.
We went on to talk about color and app developers and product developers and how there is a lot of money, energy, time and creativity invested in logos and design and color - all to keep our attention, all to sway our opinion, all to keep us interested and tuned in. And coming back for more. Over and over again. I didn’t drop the dopamine word or get into how addiction works but inadvertently I hope I planted the seeds for a future conversation. And then he said “Like Las Vegas. Imagine mom if it were all in black and white people would stop loosing their money.”
There you have it. Kiddo wisdom for the win.
But let’s discuss this experiment of mine. Over a month ago, a fellow mom and tech rethinker Kathryn M. whose son attends our son’s school shared a trick she’d tried that was a game changer for her reducing her own phone use: changing the setting to grayscale.
But why do this and how?
The why is fairly simple: SmartPhones are like a never ending dopamine drip. No they don’t actually emit dopamine but the content, the scrolling, the notifications, the connection, the responses, the requests, the colors, even just holding it in your hand can all be stimulants that cause the release of dopamine into the brain - which makes us feel good. The faster the scrolling, the faster the dopamine hit - creating a neurological “high”. For adults and children with ADHD who tend to have lower neuro levels of dopamine, the instant and constant dopamine hits (think instant gratification on steroids) that SmartPhone and device use brings can lead to true device/tech addiction in a very short period of time. Which means this isn’t just a matter of annoyance or irritation - it requires understanding addiction, dopamine, how the brain works and how to trick the brain to find pleasure and joy and satisfaction in things that don’t involve devices. If you love, parent or live with someone with ADHD you know this first hand.
The article from the New York Times (see link below) from 2018 which Kathryn included for me in her tutorial (which I have also shared below) is worth a read for understanding more of the why.
“You don’t buy black-and-white cereal boxes, you buy the really stimulating colored one, and these apps have developed really cool tiles, cool shapes, cool colors, all designed to stimulate you. But there’s a vibrant world out there, and my phone shouldn’t be it.”
Mack McKelvey, SalientMG Marketing Firm (NY Times, 2018)
I did a bit more research and found several other articles from the last few years, even from notable tech positive resources that suggest that the benefits of going grayscale are real and noticeable. One article I found was more critical, suggesting it simply took any semblance of joy out of using one’s devices but didn’t change the actual amount of usage.
For me, if it’s not joyful, it’s just not worth it so after spending some time reading these articles, I decided I wanted to give this whole thing a try. Kathryn had done the hard work for me and created a very easy step by step guide on how to actually change the settings. If it was easy for me, I PROMISE it is easy for anyone. There is nothing worse than wanting to get behind a suggested tech habit change only to realize that figuring out how to do it is so user-unfriendly that you ignore the whole thing and give up before you even start.
The how is as simple as:
On your Apple iPhone or iPad:
Go to Settings
Scroll down and choose Accessibility
Scroll down and choose Display & Text Size
Scroll down and choose Color Filters
Turn Color Filter ON and choose Grayscale
For a more detailed how-to and how to set-up the triple click function in order to togle between grayscale and color easily, check out this video.
The outcome is:
It’s been about a day and a half since my phone went gray. At first yesterday morning, my eyes weren’t sure what to make of my new black/white display - they kept glancing over at my phone in it’s charger as if something were really off but my brain couldn’t figure out what it was.
I noticed immediately that looking for an app was more cumbersome as the display felt murky and harder to distinguish the differences and I felt an impatience or disinterest in using my phone to get any kind of information.
Scrolling through Instagram lasted less than 4 minutes - I didn’t even make it to my 15 minute pre-set daily timer which usually cuts me off mid-scroll. All this after only a few hours of having the color turned off.
I do not have my phone accessible while driving unless I need the GPS function. I drove to a new location yesterday and I did find it challenging to use the maps app in grayscale as the route does not stand out in an obvious way, causing it to be actually more distracting than helpful. I also found it challenging to search for a photo or choose a photo from a saved album while in grayscale. I don’t do this often but certainly this is where you see how color does add a level of functionality that is evident when it is taken away.
Aside from the issues around functionality that I do think are valid as these (maps and photos) are for me some of the only reasons for having a SmartPhone, the biggest take away from the last 36 hours is that with my phone in grayscale I have been less likely to linger. Less likely to get lost in a rabbit hole online after looking up something on Chrome, less likely to ask for another minute after my ScreenTime limit interrupts me, less likely to feel pressure to respond to texts immediately, less likely to keep checking more and more, less likely to engage.
The peanut gallery has already shared dissatisfaction with the grayscale on the iPad and I am guessing his clever 11 year old tech skills will have it switched back to full technicolor by the weekend. As for my phone, going to let this simmer for a while and see how my brain and my behavior responds and adapts.
Love,
If this interests you and you’ve got some extra time, here are more articles on going gray(scale):
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/12/technology/grayscale-phone.html (2018)
https://www.wired.com/story/grayscale-ios-android-smartphone-addiction (2019)
https://theoutline.com/post/7955/switching-your-phone-to-grayscale-is-a-joyless-experience (2020)
https://ting.blog/going-grayscale-ios-android-smartphone/ (2022)
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/07/28/how-to-grayscale-limit-apps-iphone-android/ (2022)
https://www.apartmenttherapy.com/grayscale-iphone-266894 (2022)
What do you think? Have you tried this? Are you curious? Want to give it a try?
Did not even know greyscale was an option, but it makes total sense!