In May 2022, I switched my phone to greyscale.

It's silly, right? Why would you buy an expensive bit of hardware capable of displaying a bazillion colours only to turn those colours off?

Well, according to this article in Better Humans:

Of all the hardware capabilities of a smartphone, the screen always gets a lot of attention. That makes sense: manufacturers want you staring at their phones, and one of the ways they do that is by making the screen as beautiful as possible.

There's probably more science worth looking into, but LOL I didn't look into it. I first read about this while learning about digital minimalism and the idea just tickled me into trying it for myself.

Verdict: I loved it.

I did experience anxiety a few days in, which I didn't think was related at first. So seeing that the author of the Better Humans article encountered the same issue definitely makes me wonder. Are we all now lab pigeons conditioned to push buttons because of these beautifully rich digital colours?

Honestly, I don't know and I hope not. But having greyscale by default has been easier on the eyes, especially at night, and I feel very classy checking out all my friends' photos in black and white. Reading and doing puzzles doesn't impact my sleep as badly as it used to with the colour on. I've since switched my smartwatch and computer to greyscale too.

Generally, I only use colour for the following activities:

• Colour work (eg. design)
• Gaming (unless I can go without)
• Online shopping (of course)
• Spot checking things that might depend on colour