How Grayscale Mode Can Reshape Your Tech Habits

TL;DR

Inspired by the Light Phone 3, I turned all my devices to black and white for 3 weeks. The result? Drastically less screen time, more focus, and a new appreciation for the real world's color. #DigitalMinimalism #TechWellness #VentureStep

INTRODUCTION

We've all felt it: the constant buzz of notifications, the endless demand for attention from our phones, and the feeling that we can never truly disconnect. ¹This relentless connectivity is a problem, tying us to our devices for everything from two-factor authentication to basic communication. ² It's a digital leash that prevents us from being present in our own lives.

In this episode, host Dalton Anderson explores a radical solution inspired by the minimalist "dumb phone," the Light Phone 3. ³Intrigued by its promise to redefine our relationship with technology but put off by its steep $800 price tag, he embarked on a three-week experiment. ^4444444Instead of buying a new device, he applied the core principles of the Light Phone 3 to his existing smartphone, computer, and even his smartwatch. ⁵

Dalton shares the simple steps he took to transform his colorful, stimulating digital world into a grayscale, low-distraction environment. ⁶He details the surprising benefits, from a significant reduction in screen time to a heightened appreciation for the vividness of the real world, and also unpacks the unexpected drawbacks of living a digitally colorless life. ⁷

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• You don't need an expensive "dumb phone" like the Light Phone 3; you can achieve similar results by applying its principles of minimalism to your current devices. ⁸
• Switching your phone to grayscale mode dramatically reduces the addictive appeal of visually-driven apps like Instagram, making them uninteresting. ⁹
• Depriving your digital life of color stimulation can make your real-world experiences—from conversations to simply noticing a stop sign—feel more vivid and engaging. ¹⁰¹⁰¹⁰
• A critical first step is a ruthless app purge: go through every app and delete it unless you can strongly justify its daily necessity. ¹¹¹¹¹¹
• Be mindful of "stimulation swapping," where your brain, starved of digital color, might latch onto other colorful devices like your TV as a substitute. ¹²¹²¹²

FULL CONVERSATION

The Problem with Constant Connectivity

Dalton: I'm sure everyone's had this question to themselves or annoyance with their phone constantly demanding attention and the buzzing and constantly having to dual factor authenticate with your company or with some bank app. ¹³It seems like anything that you're doing, your phone is critically connected to that process. ¹⁴

There's no real way for you to step away. And that's a problem. ¹⁵

I was reading recently about this phone called the Light Phone 3. And the Light Phone 3 is all about reevaluating your relationship with your phone and technology in general. ¹⁶Basically, your phone is, by default, notifications are turned off. ¹⁷It's in black and white. ¹⁸It only has a camera functionality and a couple of apps. ¹⁹It's got a timer, a calculator, an ability to take phone calls, and I think basic texting. ²⁰That's it. ²¹

The $800 Price Tag Problem

Dalton: I was interested in the idea until I saw the price. ²²And I was surprised how expensive it was because it's basically an e-reader with a camera and six apps or something. ²³People call these things dumb phones and it would be substantially cheaper just to buy a phone from a previous decade. ²⁴Just a quick flip phone, takes calls, can't really text on it, or just have no phone at all. ²⁵

The pre-order price is $599. It's $799 without the pre-order. 26I have no idea how they're going to sell these things. 27So with that price, even at $600, that's steep. 28For an e-reader, steep. 29So I took it upon myself to use the underlying principles of the Light Phone 3. 30

Mimicking the Light Phone: A DIY Approach

Dalton: So what does that mean? Turning off a lot of notifications. ³¹Removing apps that you don't need. ³² Reducing clutter and stimulation. So making your phone in black and white. ³³I'm going to talk about my experience, the pros and the cons of basically reducing all color of the virtual world for three weeks. ³⁴There are some good things and there are also some bad things. ³⁵

My issue with it is you could do the same thing yourself with your current technology. ³⁶So I started with my phone first and the Light Phone 3 has very few apps. ³⁷

If you are serious about changing your relationship with your technology, then you should do it yourself. ³⁸

Step 1: The Ruthless App Purge

Dalton: I think you should put in the work and the time into evaluating each app on your phone and the base answer being no. ³⁹So your base answer is no, I don't need this. ⁴⁰And then you have to convince yourself that you need it. ⁴¹

So I went through every app on my phone. Do I use this every day? No. Could I get this on the internet if I need to? Yes. 42So then the answer is no, I don't need this on my phone. 43And then just delete it. 44So just ruthlessly deleting all your apps is big. 45And then going through and turning off all your notifications. 46I turned on only notifications for important emails or emails that are deemed important by Google and banks. 47That's it. 48

Step 2: How to Enable Grayscale Mode

Dalton: The last thing I did was I went to settings, accessibility, and this is going to be similar if you have an iPhone or Android. ⁴⁹Go to settings, accessibility, and then from there you should see colors. ⁵⁰See colors in motion and then you can turn on color correction and then you could select what kind of color correction you want. ⁵¹I have it in grayscale. ⁵²Make sure you turn on the shortcut so you can toggle in between black and white and color. ⁵³Typically you don't want to do that, but there's certain things that people send you that you need to be able to view, like a video from your mom or your family. ⁵⁴I think it's insincere to review their video in black and white when they're like, "wow, look how cool the sky looks." ⁵⁵

The Impact on Phone Usage and Screen Time

Dalton: I've used my phone a lot less. ⁵⁶I use my phone as an e-reader basically, because I have everything turned off. ⁵⁷ I don't have Instagram on my phone. I don't have any social media. ⁵⁸ Well, actually that's a lie. I have X. I like to read a lot on X. ⁵⁹I have reduced my average screen time. ⁶⁰I was having a lot of days at four hours and 15 minutes. ⁶¹Now I'm down to about two hours. ⁶²It works because there's not much to look at on your phone when it's in black and white. ⁶³

Go on Instagram and turn your phone in black and white and everything that you thought was cool is no longer cool or interesting. ⁶⁴

What is interesting in black and white is reading and hopefully you're reading the right things. ⁶⁵It is a better experience, honestly, because you aren't getting bogged down by the stimulation that isn't important. ⁶⁶None of that stuff matters when it's in black and white. ⁶⁷

Extending the Experiment to Computers and Wearables

Dalton: So I was like, wow, I like the results I'm getting from my phone. ⁶⁸ Let's take this to the next level. Let's use it for my work computer and on my personal computers. ⁶⁹So now I've effectively been just black and white all day, every day. ⁷⁰And then also I included my Garmin in this. ⁷¹They don't have black and white mode on Garmin, but they've got this thing called Redshift and you can put it in red or green. ⁷²I put it in red... it's just red and black. ⁷³So I'm effectively all in on this black and white experiment. ⁷⁴

On the computer, I would click the Windows icon, Settings, Accessibility, Colors, turn on grayscale, and turn on the window shortcut. ⁷⁵You would access black and white mode by Windows Shift C. And then if you want to go back to color, you press Windows Shift C again. ⁷⁶I was fascinated to learn that when you're in black and white, it's only black and white for you and it's an overlay on your screen, but if you take a screenshot on your black and white screen, the screenshot's actually in color. ⁷⁷

The Unexpected Pro: A More Vivid Real World

Dalton: This is the drawback is when there is color that you are exposed to, it's like, wow, this is crazy. ⁷⁸The sky is so colorful, the traffic lights, the cars are vivid because you're not exposed to any color all day. ⁷⁹And then you go outside and you're like, whoa. ⁸⁰This is exhilarating. ⁸¹You just get caught up on the weirdest things like the bright reds of a stop sign or the deep browns of dirt. ⁸²This world is beautiful. ⁸³It really is. ⁸⁴

Working and living in black and white deprives you of stimulation. So when you step outside and you go into the real world, that's all the stimulation you need. ⁸⁵

The conversations that you have with people in person, from my experience of the last three weeks, have seemed more engaging and more stimulating because the whole day you're deprived of colors and animations. ⁸⁶

Navigating Professional Life in Black and White

Dalton: If you just put it in black and white, it loses all of its grandness, the veneer has been stripped out and you see the real thing. ⁸⁷

And you see that a lot of the things that you have on your phone or apps that you're using don't have the purpose. ⁸⁸

If you're in a work call and it's in black and white, there's less distractions. ⁸⁹You can focus on people's facial expressions and how they're saying things and their body language. ⁹⁰Because if they're wearing this colorful shirt and it's all vivid on the video, it might be distracting, but you can really dial in and focus on what matters. ⁹¹

The Downsides: Beware of Stimulation Swapping

Dalton: Moving over to the drawbacks, I think that there are some drawbacks. ⁹²When you devoid yourself of stimulation in the virtual world, your brain is going to search for something else to latch onto. ⁹³And so you have to be careful on what you are taking out and what you're putting back in. ⁹⁴An example could be that you put your phone and your work computer in black and white, but your TV is still in color. ⁹⁵I'm not a big TV watcher. ⁹⁶But two days ago, I didn't have much to do and I was tired and I saw my TV and I was like, whoa, this is pretty cool. ⁹⁷Look at all the colors. ⁹⁸

You just have to be aware of how you're spending your color allocation. ⁹⁹

If your whole life is without color, what brings you color? ¹⁰⁰It could be your wife, your family, your partner, hobbies, the community. ¹⁰¹There's so much stuff that life could offer you. ¹⁰²And those experiences are so much more memorable and stimulating because you don't see color anymore. ¹⁰³

Final Verdict: Is the Black and White Life for You?

Dalton: Overall, my experience has been great. ¹⁰⁴I think that other people should embrace this and it should become a little bit more mainstream. ¹⁰⁵ If you held strong for three days, you'll see a major difference. It's a night and day, literally. ¹⁰⁶

My disappointed time wasted is reduced with this protocol. ¹⁰⁷And this protocol of mimicking the Light Phone 3's principles and reevaluating your technology has an impact on you and it has an impact on how you look at life and how you experience life. ¹⁰⁸Something worth a shot, I would just try it out. ¹⁰⁹Give it a try. ¹¹⁰Try it for a day and see. ¹¹¹

RESOURCES MENTIONED

• Light Phone 3
• Duolingo
• Google
• iPhone
• Android
• Spotify
• Signal
• WhatsApp
• Global Entry app
• X (formerly Twitter)
• The New York Times
• The Athletic
• Garmin
• Windows
• YouTube

INDEX OF CONCEPTS

Light Phone 3, dumb phones, dual factor authentication, Duolingo, Google, Android, iPhone, accessibility, grayscale, color correction, Global Entry app, Spotify, Signal, WhatsApp, X, The New York Times, The Athletic, Garmin, Redshift, Windows, YouTube, digital minimalism, screen time, stimulation swapping, disappointed time wasted