4 ms·

One common psychological trick addictive social media uses is high saturation color, as it causes our monkey brains to enjoy it slightly more. This is monotone

One common psychological trick addictive social media uses is high saturation color, as it causes our monkey brains to enjoy it slightly more. This is monotone and I’d assume that’s a relevant feature point

snypher 2y ago
I often use ctrl-win-c shortcut for black and white mode in Windows, it's great to rest the eyes.
- webprofusion 2y ago
  That's awesome, I had no idea that was a feature, using it now!
- Theodores 2y ago
  On Ubuntu it is not quite like that. https://github.com/ionutbortis/gnome-bedtime-mode https://github.com/ionutbortis/gnome-bedtime-mode Yeah, you have to do some installing to get the feature you never knew you needed.
- mattsnuts 2y ago
  Ah man about a year ago my windows went black and white and I didn’t know why and couldn’t figure it out, I must have pressed this. Had to reboot to fix it.
jsheard 2y ago
Most devices let you enable a monochrome filter and optionally invert the image somewhere in the accessibility settings, for what it's worth. You don't need a special device just for that.
- selcuka 2y ago
  > Most devices let you [...] But nobody does that, because we love addictions.
  - imp0cat 2y ago
    This. The screen should slowly desaturate color and eventually switch to b/w when the phone detects mindless scrolling automatically. ;)
    - cowsaymoo 2y ago
      Lool like each post you scroll desaturates the screen by 2%
  - dash2 2y ago
    I do it!
wzyboy 2y ago
On Pixel phone, there is a Digital Wellbeing setting that can turn your screen into Greyscale mode during bedtime. It is said to discourage the use of social networks and helps you sleep better.
- cypherpunks01 2y ago
  I'd recommend giving grayscale mode a try not only during bedtime, but all the time! My Pixel has been set this way for a couple months and it has decreased my mindless phone usage by simply making the phone more boring overall, without any new device or major sacrifices. I became concerned that I'd turn it off when I temporarily needed color and forget to turn it back on, so instead I used Tasker to listen for L-R shake action and make that temporarily disable grayscale mode for 20 secs (in case I specifically decide I want to look at color in a photo or disambiguate something from grayscale). Works decently well, I can explain the Tasker steps if anyone else is interested.
  - freedomben 2y ago
    I'd love to do the same thing, so if you have time to explain the Tasker steps I'd definitely make use of them :-)
    - cypherpunks01 2y ago
      I put the steps in a sibling comment: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40465686 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40465686 Cheers
  - albert_e 2y ago
    > used Tasker to listen for L-R shake action and make that temporarily disable grayscale mode for 20 secs Wonderful I am using gray scale on personal phone permanently, but avoided that on work phone as I might need to discern color in some work documents or screenshares. What you describe seems like a perfect solution but does it work on all Android phones? If you could throw some more light on the steps ... appreciate that!
lloeki 2y ago
That, and at night a LED device is literally putting a flashlight in direct line of sight, which does not help in making one sleepy (even with night mode stuff cutting some blue light it's still a flashlight, albeit tinted) so more potential for extended late hours doomscrolling. OLED is kind of better than LCD but still. Comparatively eink relies on ambient lighting (backlighted ones have it backwards in that regard)

snypher 2y ago

I often use ctrl-win-c shortcut for black and white mode in Windows, it's great to rest the eyes.

webprofusion 2y ago
That's awesome, I had no idea that was a feature, using it now!
Theodores 2y ago
On Ubuntu it is not quite like that. https://github.com/ionutbortis/gnome-bedtime-mode https://github.com/ionutbortis/gnome-bedtime-mode Yeah, you have to do some installing to get the feature you never knew you needed.
mattsnuts 2y ago
Ah man about a year ago my windows went black and white and I didn’t know why and couldn’t figure it out, I must have pressed this. Had to reboot to fix it.

jsheard 2y ago

Most devices let you enable a monochrome filter and optionally invert the image somewhere in the accessibility settings, for what it's worth. You don't need a special device just for that.

selcuka 2y ago
> Most devices let you [...] But nobody does that, because we love addictions.
- imp0cat 2y ago
  This. The screen should slowly desaturate color and eventually switch to b/w when the phone detects mindless scrolling automatically. ;)
  - cowsaymoo 2y ago
    Lool like each post you scroll desaturates the screen by 2%
- dash2 2y ago
  I do it!

wzyboy 2y ago

On Pixel phone, there is a Digital Wellbeing setting that can turn your screen into Greyscale mode during bedtime. It is said to discourage the use of social networks and helps you sleep better.

cypherpunks01 2y ago
I'd recommend giving grayscale mode a try not only during bedtime, but all the time! My Pixel has been set this way for a couple months and it has decreased my mindless phone usage by simply making the phone more boring overall, without any new device or major sacrifices. I became concerned that I'd turn it off when I temporarily needed color and forget to turn it back on, so instead I used Tasker to listen for L-R shake action and make that temporarily disable grayscale mode for 20 secs (in case I specifically decide I want to look at color in a photo or disambiguate something from grayscale). Works decently well, I can explain the Tasker steps if anyone else is interested.
- freedomben 2y ago
  I'd love to do the same thing, so if you have time to explain the Tasker steps I'd definitely make use of them :-)
  - cypherpunks01 2y ago
    I put the steps in a sibling comment: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40465686 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40465686 Cheers
- albert_e 2y ago
  > used Tasker to listen for L-R shake action and make that temporarily disable grayscale mode for 20 secs Wonderful I am using gray scale on personal phone permanently, but avoided that on work phone as I might need to discern color in some work documents or screenshares. What you describe seems like a perfect solution but does it work on all Android phones? If you could throw some more light on the steps ... appreciate that!

lloeki 2y ago

That, and at night a LED device is literally putting a flashlight in direct line of sight, which does not help in making one sleepy (even with night mode stuff cutting some blue light it's still a flashlight, albeit tinted) so more potential for extended late hours doomscrolling. OLED is kind of better than LCD but still. Comparatively eink relies on ambient lighting (backlighted ones have it backwards in that regard)