
What the Grayscale Challenge Taught Us About Phone Addiction - rbanffy
https://blog.mozilla.org/internetcitizen/2018/02/13/grayscale/
======
gnicholas
> _I asked myself how many people already see the whole world like this by
> default. I guess about 8 percent of men are colorblind (women are much less
> likely to be colorblind) and I was thinking about what that might be like._

For the record, the most common type of colorblindness is red/green. So it's
not like 1/10 men can't see _any_ color and "see the whole world like this".

~~~
inetknght
I know that my phone has a "low power mode" which turns everything greyscale.
Many phones have a "low-light reading mode" as well that turns warmer colors.
I wonder how difficult it might be to have color blind mode for specific types
of blindness? Might be interesting to UX designers

~~~
forapurpose
> my phone has a "low power mode" which turns everything greyscale

Why do grey pixels consume less power than red pixels of the same brightness?

In fact, assuming (maybe wrongly) that your phone screen's colors are created
from RGB, CMYK or some other combination of primary color 'dots' in each
pixel, grey would require lighting all the dots in a pixel, while 'redscale'
would limit power usage to 1/3 or 1/4 of the dots. I realize there are many
other issues potentially involved, but perhaps someone could explain.

EDIT: Sorry, the correct terminology of 'dots' and pixels is lost in my brain
someplace and I don't have time to find it.

~~~
Terr_
Maybe it's an issue of LCD backlighting?

The backlight has to be strong enough to supply the _highest_ R,G, or B value,
while the lower values have light blocked off (by polarization) and turned
into heat.

When the LCD display shades of grey, the RGB values are more likely to be in
tandem, so maybe you can get the same final brightness coming out with fewer
photons being overproduced at the start.

------
40acres
I'm currently going greyscale and have not noticed many differences in my
habits. In the past week I've been using YouTube less but my YouTube habits
have always ebbed and flowed. I'm reading the news apps on my phone slightly
more.. greyscale makes articles have a dead tree newspaper feel with the black
and white photos. Google maps is noticeably more difficult to use and so is
Google calendar, which categorizes events by color.

~~~
SubiculumCode
I think that for those that go for the visual experience this may detract
them. But I go for the text experience, so..

~~~
Slansitartop
Yeah, I thought about doing this...but then I realized I've already cut back
the behaviors this is trying to control, or never adopted them in the first
place (I was a late smartphone adopter and have had most notifications
disabled for as long as I've had one).

This grayscale challenge seems more to help phone addicts break their habit,
but seem to do much if you aren't one and/or don't use social media apps.

Don't get me wrong, I really like the idea. I'd probably do it if I could
selectively enable color only for certain utilitarian apps, like my Camera and
photo-viewer.

~~~
dwighttk
on iOS you can make it so when you triple click the home button (or the side
button on the X) you can toggle color filters

~~~
Slansitartop
I have a Pixel and when I tried it I had to dig into the developer settings.
Phone addiction isn't a big problem for me so only a more polished solution
would make sense.

I'd really like something like the pre-existing app-specific settings like
Android has for notifications and permissions.

------
leggomylibro
>I asked myself how many people already see the whole world like this by
default.

>...

>As a designer, I depend heavily on color...

I'm a little surprised that a visual designer wouldn't already be applying
basic accessible design practices - but I guess it's not something most people
think about day-to-day. Still, at the very least, consider running your
palettes through a simulator such as:

[http://www.color-blindness.com/coblis-color-blindness-
simula...](http://www.color-blindness.com/coblis-color-blindness-simulator/)

~~~
reificator
If you're doing things on the web, this extension can simulate the various
types of colorblindness on any page you visit:

[https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/spectrum/ofclemegk...](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/spectrum/ofclemegkcmilinpcimpjkfhjfgmhieb?hl=en)

~~~
illustrioussuit
By extension (get it?), this extension simulates other vision deficiencies:

[https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/nocoffee/jjeeggmbn...](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/nocoffee/jjeeggmbnhckmgdhmgdckeigabjfbddl)

Disclaimer: I have no affiliation with this product besides that I use it.

------
nategri
I think we're at the tail end of a unique cultural moment where "phone
addiction" is even a conceivable idea. They are already arguably _the_ human
tool, and in a decade or two the devices will be so firmly a fixture of
interaction that "phone addiction" will seem as quaint an idea as "book
addiction."

~~~
svantana
I would compare it to sugar instead. At some point in the last century, food
companies figured out that they could leverage the sweet tooth inherent in us
using refined sugars. Dental health declined rapidly and obesity went up. It
took a couple of decades for society to catch up and put in place
countermeasures. To me it seems it's getting better, although at a pretty slow
pace; people generally know more about the issue, sugar taxes are being put in
place, and there's now some social stigma around excessive candy eating.

Similarly, we're beginning to wise up around the exploitation of our
attention. The dopamine hit is real, just like with sugar, but we can also
learn to override those impulses by focusing on longer-term goals (being in
shape, having a healthy social life).

------
eorge_g
I've been on this for a few weeks now and has made a huge difference in
compulsively checking email and twitter.

Pro tip: add it to the triple home button click
(Settings>General>Accessibility>Accessibility Shortcut (all the way at the
bottom)>Select 'Color Filters') for easy switching for color/grayscale.

~~~
fao_
It's weird, I have "invert colors" but not any other options. I'm on
Marshmallow (samsung s5)

~~~
dolsson01
I just went through this on my S5.

"Here's a solution! Go to "about device", find "build number", and tap it a
bunch of times until the phone tells you you are a developer. Then, go back to
settings, and above about device, you will see a new option called "developer
options". Open it, and find "Simulate color space", and set it to
"Monochrome"."

Ref: [https://forums.androidcentral.com/ask-question/686329-why-
th...](https://forums.androidcentral.com/ask-question/686329-why-there-no-
more-grayscale-galaxy-s5-6-0-a.html)

~~~
claar
Worked for me, thanks!

BTW, I had to vouch for your comment to get it to not be [dead].

~~~
fao_
That's weird. A couple of days ago their comment was visible fine, and they
only have one comment.

------
fenwick67
This is a great idea because it's in that goldilocks zone - pretty easy to
toggle but not so easy that I'll disable it for something arbitrary.

~~~
Accacin
On iPhone I set it to switch between Greyscale and Normal with a triple click
of the home button so it's really quick to change if I want to watch a video.

~~~
cimmanom
How do you set it to do that?

~~~
StevenRayOrr
Settings -> General -> Accessibility Shortcut -> Color Filter.

~~~
cimmanom
Thank you!

------
piracykills
I found this challenge actually harmed my productivity - I wound up reading
more reddit comments and playing less little puzzle games (think Flow Free,
not Clash of Clans). The little puzzle games were relaxing and I could pay
attention to music or a podcast while playing them. Reddit comment threads are
often political and angry and reading text draws my focus entirely - leaving
me feeling mad about things I really have no control over and which actually
have fairly little impact on me. Uninstalled the reddit app when I realized it
had this influence for me at least.

------
graeme
On ios, you can set the accessibility shortcut to enable/disable greyscale
quickly. Useful for when you need colour.

Settings --> general --> accessiblity --> scroll to accessibility shortcut at
bototm --> choose colour filters

Enabling greyscale itself is in the display accomodations --> colour filters
section of accessibility

Once enable, just triple tap home to turn greyscale on/off

At least some android systems have a similar setting.

I am not sure if this is actually affecting my usage, but I only figured this
out a couple days ago. My compulsive usage is mostly text, which grayscale has
little impact on.

~~~
antichronology
Its possible that its better to leave the option more inaccessible to further
incentivize yourself from reverting back to color mode. Maybe those few extra
steps of converting back to color will stop you from doing so

~~~
graeme
Agreed. But, in my case I couldn't use grayscale without this. I _need_ colour
many times a day for work.

So, this is actually what made greyscale possibly at all. I do agree you have
to watch for leaving it off though.

If you find yourself switching it off you can set a daily reminder until the
habit sticks.

------
Quagga
Does anybody know how to grayscale all web pages in browser, and then add my
custom syntax highlighting for code and links. It is not possible to change
colors after applying CSS grayscale filter.

~~~
gnicholas
I tried doing this also, but couldn't find a way to make it work easily. Since
my use case was slightly different (wanted to de-saturate everything except
the body text on websites), I used a semi-transparent layer instead of
grayscale. You can see what the result looks like in my Chrome extension
[1]—it's the Focus Mode feature, which is still in beta and off by default.

1: [https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/beeline-
reader/ifj...](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/beeline-
reader/ifjafammaookpiajfbedmacfldaiamgg?hl=en)

------
openfuture
Interesting, I've been using my phone in grayscale only mode for a couple of
years mostly for battery life and cause it doesn't really matter when all I
use it for us reading and writing. But when I try to use it for something else
I have to disable the grayscale, which is annoying, so I guess I've been
unknowingly curbing my usage by doing this...

------
paulryanrogers
In design class we were taught light text on dark backgrounds are easier on
the eyes for light emitting mediums. A nice side-effect of forcing such themes
on browsers and Windows is that it cut out colorful distractions.

Sadly these themes and style overrides often make sites unusable.

Edit: typo fix

------
antichronology
Has anyone tried changing their computer display to grayscale as well? I tried
it for a bit but found that code syntax lacks color. Also graphics in papers
all of a sudden are infinitely less informative (elucidating blue from red is
really hard in grayscale)

~~~
fao_
Indeed, there is a small movement in the development/programming community
that advocate this :)

[https://dev.to/huytd/turning-off-the-syntax-
highlighter-8af](https://dev.to/huytd/turning-off-the-syntax-highlighter-8af)

[http://www.linusakesson.net/programming/syntaxhighlighting/](http://www.linusakesson.net/programming/syntaxhighlighting/)

[https://kyleisom.net/blog/2012/10/17/syntax-
off/](https://kyleisom.net/blog/2012/10/17/syntax-off/)

[https://groups.google.com/forum/#!msg/golang-
nuts/hJHCAaiL0s...](https://groups.google.com/forum/#!msg/golang-
nuts/hJHCAaiL0so/kG3BHV6QFfIJ)

[https://www.robertmelton.com/project/syntax-highlighting-
off...](https://www.robertmelton.com/project/syntax-highlighting-off/)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12886067](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12886067)

[https://www.howtogeek.com/howto/linux/disable-syntax-
highlig...](https://www.howtogeek.com/howto/linux/disable-syntax-highlighting-
in-vim/)

[https://vi.stackexchange.com/questions/8751/how-to-
completel...](https://vi.stackexchange.com/questions/8751/how-to-completely-
turn-off-colorscheme)

------
trurl
On one hand, configuring my phone to grayscale is to me a very intriguing
"lifehack". But for better or worse, my phone is also my primary camera, and I
tend to think that setting it to grayscale would impair my ability to take
photos.

~~~
rangibaby
Not at all. You’ll develop an eye for tonal contrast with your hip black and
white camera!

------
Psilidae
I wish I could try this!

I doubt there are many others here, but if anyone is still using a Windows
Phone, I just submitted a suggestion for greyscale options to the MS Feedback
Hub, so you can search "greyscale" there to upvote the suggestion.

~~~
WorldMaker
Microsoft added it to the Windows 10 platform already, so I would suspect
mobile should get it when it the fork merges back (mobile is currently an RS2
[CU] fork, not quite feature par with RS3 [FCU], and supposedly sometime after
RS4 the platform should remerge as the CShell and other efforts move along).

Related: on any Windows 10 device updated to the FCU the shortcut key
Win+Ctrl+C switches the current Ease of Access color filter (which defaults to
grayscale) on/off immediately. It was making the rounds recently as one of
those quick "confuse a coworker" pranks like the monitor orientation keyboard
shortcuts.

The Insider builds are showing a lot of interesting work going into a rules
engine for Quiet Hours which in recent builds was renamed to Focus Assist.
Grayscale might be a good suggestion for Focus Assist rules, especially if the
Focus Assist rules engine also takes over Night Light functionality (which I
don't know if has been mentioned yet, and my Insider tablet was in the process
of updating through a couple weeks of updates when I last left it).

------
jdtang13
Wow, I am trying this now. This is very strange. It definitely makes flashing
red notification badges easier to avoid. But the lack of color diversity makes
it hard for me to navigate certain apps. Very weird.

------
jiojfekjl
I tried this and it didn't make me use my phone less. That said, I don't use
my phone for hours and hours to begin with. Was this anyone else's experience?

------
skykooler
Is there a way to do this with color profiles in Linux?

~~~
mmjaa
Your monitor might support it?

~~~
skykooler
Using a laptop, unfortunately I can only control its screen via the OS.

