How Monochrome can reduce screentime

Procrastination with our smartphones is a given these days thanks to all the internet we ever need and the never ending information which doesn’t end until our mind decides to put a halt!(many times it realizes a bit late anyway) It is nothing new to us given the smartphones display’s have gotten big, bright and beautiful. So good that sometimes we might prefer these instead of our laptop or TV as they are both good looking and readily available everywhere we go. But if there is one thing connecting our interest and the content on the screen it can be tied to all the colors that hit us while using our smartphone.

Humans love colors PERIOD!

There is no getting around the fact that we perceive the world around us by using multiple senses and mainly that includes our eyes, which fundamentally perceive the world by colors and these colors can subconsciously reveal emotions about a particular object or a scene. There are many examples like traffic lights, all the items in grocery store and everything else in between. All these try to catch the psychology behind our minds and try to get our attention. It is not a bad thing by any means but smartphones exploit this psychological trick immensely and that is the whole point of my explanation

Every thing on our mobiles has a co-relation in this idea; from our clickable buttons to item layout all positioned strategically to attract our eyes to the buttons the developer wants us to hit but not give a neutral option to the user as it can be a deciding factor form signing up for a service or not. This can be seen any sign in pages where sign in is highlighted pretty well with color on it but not the cancel which is just plain text accompanied by an empty box

Millions are spent on logo design and for a good reason

There are dedicated jobs for people to design logos that are “eye-catching” so we click that over the others in the grid of icons. Have a look at all the icons such as Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, YouTube or any famous app on the smartphone. They all have one thing in common and that is punchy colors, flat designs which combined represent an emotion to the end user often in a good way or in my words addictive way.

ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM — BLACK AND WHITE

As everything above clearly explains how the colors play an important role in catching our eye, there is no application which embraces complete “Monochrome” approach. That is because these both colors only represent a dull emotion and no one wants to be dull using a smartphone. It literally defeats the purpose of the design aesthetic.

Well, that is the bulls eye we are aiming for if we need some zen-time to our self and our brains rather with the phone zombie scrolling all the way. This is an easy simple step which would drastically improve your desire to put the phone down and get work done because there is literally nothing interesting to watch in monochrome. And I shall guide you on the steps.

On iOS:
Visit ACCESSIBILITY and look for color filters. Only select monochrome and a trigger to activate it(triple click if you have touch id or other option in newer phones)

On Android:
This can be tricky as there are too many models and android versions which use different settings. But good news is that all you need to find is the developers option and activate it by hitting the build number 5 times or model number(depending on the phone) and go to developer options and find the option named COLOR SPACES. Select monochrome(or other name which does the same). If still cant reach developers settings try googling the same model and should make it easy

Now that it is setup ensure to use the phone for at least 6–24hr only and revert back to the normal settings. It would be odd to use the phone but ensure to challenge yourself to stick to 6hr minimum and notice the difference it makes as stated below.

Observations you shall have as per my opinion:

You would have hard time distinguishing Instagram, Snapchat or Facebook if they all show up near by.
Even if you have the muscle memory to open them the icons looked washed out
As time progresses and you have used the phone for at least a while you start feeling your eyes will have no interest in zombie scrolling anymore in any app. It just doesn’t look good any more and it achieves your goal
Maybe if you have the habit of reading articles it may not make a difference but for many zombie scrollers out there this will really make your eyes soar and want to look else where (real world)

After the challenge is complete go back to normal and see how the colors could hit your eyes like a sniper hit a headshot. All at once all the colors literally shooting at you. This only lasts for few seconds till your brain adapts the OLD NORMAL but trust me everything will feel more lively and you might feel you have taken a dip into a zen mode and sailed back into the line.

Verdict

There is absolutely no reason to torture yourself by doing this all the time but if you read this far you at least have a conscious thought to decrease your screen time and this approach will let you keep all the apps and no need to rearrange the apps or tuck it away where you think you cant find but you would find it anyway. The only point is if nothing works, I bet this would work and help you get things done.