[roughly]

By way of an experiment - set your phone screen to black & white (in iOS, settings -> accessibility -> display -> color filters -> [on] -> grayscale, on android, settings -> accessibility -> color & motion -> color correction -> [on] -> grayscale), and leave it that way for a day of normal use. Then, turn it off, and note how you react to the change.

Folks aren't calling it calmer because they're trying to look erudite, they're calling it calmer because modern applications put a lot of work into capturing your attention, and color is one of the tools they use (quite aggressively) to do so. Disabling color on the device isn't some way to look snobbish, it's a way to reduce the number of ways the device and applications are attempting to grab your attention.

[idl8t3]

I created a shortcut to toggle grayscale for iOS. Try it out!

https://www.icloud.com/shortcuts/371d5ced520d40e984d626ae304...

[hollerith]

Since IIRC Shortcuts is actually pretty clunky, it's probably easier to use Control Center to toggle grayscale, which is possible after you add the control named "accessibility shortcuts" using {settings > control center}. That is what I use.

(And on Gnome, I use and recommend the following: https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/4012/gnome-bedtime/)

[roughly]

On iOS, you can also set up the “accessibility shortcut” (settings -> accessibility -> accessibility shortcut), which lets you triple-click the home button to enable it.

[StephenCanis]

Thank you so much for this! Not having to dig through the settings to toggle B&W makes it much more workable.

[zimpenfish]

You can also have the back tap (double or triple) run the accessibility shortcut.

I use triple-back for "grayscale" (because I found myself double-tapping the back accidentally all the time.)

[dash2]

You can also create automations to turn grayscale back off for apps that need it. I have ones for maps, photos and whatsapp (since people send a lot of pics in my group). They run when the app is activated/deactivated.

[adriand]

I had no idea this was possible, wow, very cool! I turned this on and I’m going to try it out. I kind of love the idea of a grayscale screen and I had no clue I owned one already!

[card_zero]

Just ignore them? Don't use manipulative apps?

I suppose for some people this is an issue and they genuinely want a physical solution in order to stop habitually doing things they don't like, like Odysseus wanting to be tied to the mast to avoid the Sirens.

I can predict how my behavior would change if I tried this: I'd be pissed off because you'd ruined my game of Heroes III (1999). And Brogue would be slightly less pretty. Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead would be much the same, and news sites and coding wouldn't change much. So my reaction would just be "this is gloomy", it's not like I need freeing from a hypnotic spell.

[ohmyiv]

Hmmm..the way you're arguing against makes it seem like you're being manipulated. Maybe you have an issue too?

If you don't want to use it then don't. I'm not even sure why you're in here arguing against it.

> People often believe that "other people can be persuaded, but not me. I’m the smart one. It’s only those other people over there that can’t control their thought."

https://www.wired.com/story/our-minds-have-been-hijacked-by-...

[card_zero]

> I'm not even sure why you're in here arguing against it.

To recap, somebody mentioned addiction, to colors presumably, as a reason to prefer a monochrome display, and I thought that was ridiculous. So I said so. People didn't react well.

I've read a little part of the article. I don't much like the giant tech and social media companies. However, when I come to phrases like this:

> hijacking of the human mind

> hooking kids to send messages back and forth

I can't bear to continue wading through it. This is just moral panic. A marginal effect of keeping an audience's attention - sometimes - for a little while - is exaggerated by people who (again, like me) dislike the big tech companies, and described like an actual addictive drug. This seems dishonest. But perhaps they actually believe it. No doubt there have been studies that tell them what they want to hear.

But yeah, moral panic, or maybe virtue signalling, or tribalism - something like that is going on here, and realism suffers, and I don't like that, so I said something. I don't know if anybody appreciated me saying something, because maybe it was off-message, but I'm saying it anyway. I'm not claiming to be super-smart, I'm generally a foolish person, and I'm getting a lot of veiled insults here, I suppose because I pissed on your oddly monochrome strawberries.

[coldtea]

>To recap, somebody mentioned addiction, to colors presumably, as a reason to prefer a monochrome display, and I thought that was ridiculous.

Somebody mentioned addiction, not "to colors" but to regular content doomscrolling, smartphone overuse, and so on. And the idea was that a monochrome display of videos, social media apps, webpages, TikToks etc makes them less enticing (and thus helps with reducing their use).

This is not only far from ridiculous (then again, some find the idea of a round earth ridiculous too), but something that has both tried with reported success by tons of people, and also the subject of study:

True colors: Grayscale setting reduces screen time in college students

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/03623319.2020.1...

Color me calm: Grayscale phone setting reduces anxiety and problematic smartphone use

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12144-021-02020-y

Suffering from problematic smartphone use? Why not use grayscale setting as an intervention! – An experimental study

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S245195882...

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S245195882...

Billions spent in making content more addictive - including the use of color to drive emotion and provide dopamine hits.

>But yeah, moral panic, or maybe virtue signalling, or tribalism

Or <insert other random middlebrow dismissal term>

[ohmyiv]

Yawn. You started off calling the use of greyscale "snobbery". Just because people use something you don't, doesn't make them snobs. Maybe if you were more open and honestly questioning, you wouldn't perceive "veiled insults", which I haven't noticed so far. Nice projection, buddy.

But, like I said, if you don't think it works, fine don't do. But when people explain why it works for them, don't diss them for using something that works.

Don't act like you're some perfect moral compass of everybody's experience. You started this thread with insults. And every comment you've made since includes them. Maybe grow up and accept that people like something _you've never tried before_.

[card_zero]

Yes, just to reiterate: it's snobbery, I'm pretty sure. Do you think that's an insult? I could sugar-coat it: probably the snobs involved are lovely people, and I can't control their preferences. And I shouldn't have started mentioning insults, that kind of meta-comment is always a distraction. I see what I took to be a direct parody of me with "I'm the only smart one" was actually a quote from the tiresome hooks-in-your-brain article.

[roughly]

Again, I'd encourage you to actually give it a try. It's quick, and I think it would give you some insights into the things people are actually saying and why they're saying them.

[coldtea]

>it's not like I need freeing from a hypnotic spell.

Well, that's exactly what many social media addicts do need.