Go Gray, Not Cray: Why You Should Grayscale Your Phone

Summary

Go Gray, Not Cray: Why You Should Grayscale Your Phone Framing our phones as glossy portraits of the world comes at a cost: we spend more time gazing instead of gaining utility. Photo by Mihail Ilchov / Unsplash "Is the picture going to appear in black & white?" asks a stand-byer I've asked to take a photo of myself & family by a pond. "No." I assure him. "The photo will be fine–it's just my phone set to black & white." In puzzlement asks: "Why?" I grin: "It's an older phone."A few years ago, on the recommendation of a colleague, decided to experiment with setting my phone to black and white—also known as grayscale. At first, the experience felt unreal, limiting, even annoying. The lack of color seemed almost debilitating. But as time passed, I became increasingly aware of its unexpected benefits. To my surprise, the change positively affected both my health and productivity—enough that I now believe more people should take this lifestyle shift seriously.Life is in color, why forgo it?Our phones are designed to virtually emulate the world as vividly as possible. Take iPhone 17 screen for example: when displaying HDR images, shows you around 1.07 billion colors at once. That level of visual richness is impressive—but also powerful in how it captures and holds our attention.Turning off color makes your phone's influence immediately visible.How to switch to grayscale📱 iPhone:Settings → Accessibility → Display & Text Size → Color Filters → Grayscale🤖 AndroidSettings → Accessibility → Display → Text and Display → Color Correction → GrayscaleLess screen timePeople spend the tune of 8.5 hours of screen-time a day. With about 8 hours devoted to sleep, that means nearly half of people's waking lives are spent staring at a display. Framing our phones as glossy portraits of the world comes at a cost: we spend more time gazing instead of gaining utility.Switching to grayscale dulled my phone’s hypnotic pull. The once eye-candy appeal of social media became noticeably less seduc...