Nows and Forevers

With my screens, both mobile and laptop, I’ve gone old-school.

I’ve changed my iPhone and MacBook screens to grayscale. That takes care of about 80% of my screen time, although I’m considering doing the same thing for my iMac and iPad, too.

I haven’t stared into a noncolor screen for a long time, easily 30 years for a computer and ever since I got the iPhone in 2008. But I’ve been thinking a lot about my relationship to technology and how much time I spend on it. And I’ve decided to find ways, big and small, to reduce that time.

Don’t know whether this change — along with dropping social media from my iPhone — will end up drastically changing my life. I highly doubt it. Nor do I really know whether looking at a screen, whether it’s color or grayscale, will have a big effect on my health. (Some sources say yes, some sources say no.)

But I’m going to try.

I didn’t get this idea on my own. I was listening to a podcast (the Ham Radio Crash Course, which I recommend if you’re into ham radio) when one of the hosts mentioned she had done that. She said that it took some getting used to, particularly with pictures, but that she thought it was a good idea. I was driving a long distance while listening to the podcast and started thinking about whether I would do this.

So I did.

A couple of days in, I’m still getting used to grayscale. I use my iPhone for a lot of things, whether it’s communication, entertainment (audio and visual), personal and work emails, and a host of other things. I never really thought of whether the colors have an impact on me. I still don’t. It took a little getting used to and my son, seeing the gray screen, asked what was wrong with the phone.

“Nothing,” I said. “I just changed it.”

I’ll admit some of it took getting used to. The Ham Radio Crash Course Cohost, Leah, had said that photos were a challenge. That is the case, which I’m still getting navigating. (I’ll probably have to turn it back to color if I take any photos for work.) And I use the iPhone to watch video and TV shows, so I don’t know what to do about that.

I watched a “Star Trek” episode in grayscale last night. It was … interesting.

After a few days of the grayscale iPhone, I took another plunge and I converted my work MacBook to grayscale. I missed the color of my background photo but, so far, little else.

What I’ve gotten in return is less time on screens — or, should I say, more productivity — as well as probably less dopamine hits and blue light. I continue to use my iPhone for writing and my MacBook for work. After a few days I got used to less color. And I am feeling much more focused, and maybe more balanced between screen and real life.

No idea whether I’ll be able to keep it up. But at the moment, that’s welcome.