Change Your Screen to Grayscale to Combat Phone Addiction
If you find it difficult to look away from your phone, there is a good reason for that: it was designed this way. A few years ago, former design ethics at Google and founder of the nonprofit had a good time, Tristana Harris was bypassed , talking about how technology is designed to be addictive and hijack our attention. He was quite convincing and likened the decoy of your phone to the decoy of a slot machine.
Most of the time you check your phone and there is nothing interesting – no notifications, all the same old apps are looking at you. But sometimes checking your phone is fun: you get a funny message, a flurry of likes, or an email with good news. That hit is enough to keep you coming back, compulsively checking your phone for another boost of dopamine.
To sit down
To combat phone addiction, Harris suggests turning on grayscale on your phone. It may not completely cure your addiction, but surely Instagram and Snapchat will be a lot less attractive in black and white than multicolored.
The process for enabling grayscale is different for different Android phone models , but is usually accessed through the Accessibility menu. For example, on iOS, go to Settings> General> Accessibility> Display Adaptation> Color Filters. Turn on Color filters and select Grayscale. To easily switch between color and grayscale, choose Settings> General> Accessibility> Accessibility Shortcut> Color Filters. Now you just press the Home button three times to turn on the grayscale. Triple click again to return to color.
If that doesn’t suit you, we have other suggestions to help you break your phone habit, such as using certain apps and these tips from Reddit .
This story was originally published in 2017 and has been updated with new information on 02/18/2020.