In this video that I found today, Dr. James Hamblin suggests turning your phone gray to battle your phone addiction.
The idea is that all the notifications are red to catch our attention. But when everything is gray it’s much easier for us to ignore them. And yes it’s true, I feel immediately sad when I look at my screen, which makes me not want to interact with it.
BTW, on the iPhone you can do that by going to Settings -> General -> Accessibility and turning on Grayscale
Of course, that raises the question, whether we could use this strategy for other areas? Would we eat less chocolate and candy if the packaging was gray?
Maybe. I don’t think it would work for me unless the food were also gray.
Would we be more likely to walk if our cars were gray?
Probably not
Hm, TV caught on when it was still in black and white.
So not sure if that’s the best strategy beyond the phone then.
Anyway, I like the thinking behind it. It could be a straightforward and creative albeit colorless solution to a common problem.