Going Grayscale for Lent

What is "Going Grayscale"?

Smartphones have a display setting that limits the colors of the screen to shades of gray. Switching a screen to grayscale reduces the attraction of looking at the screen, thus reducing overall phone usage and increasing conscious choice, rather than simply responding to bright colors designed intentionally to attract attention and cause distraction. For more on the results of going grayscale, see this piece by Nellie Bowles, entitled, "Is the Answer to Phone Addiction a Worse Phone?" You may also be interested in a TED talk by tech ethicist Tristan Harrison on "Time Well Spent."

The Phone Temptation

A mere two years ago, I finally got a smartphone, with the hopes of finally being able easily to read the texts from my daughter's soccer coach. When I told my brother, he said, "You'll be a slave to your phone in about a month." I laughed. I didn't think I'd be like those people who always have their phones out. But before long, his words started to become more and more true. Like many people, I started using my phone for everything from prayer to driving directions to email to FaceBook to weather checks to recipes to, well, you get the point.

Smartphones are dead useful, no doubt. And yet, lately there has been a new round of concerns about the effects they have on us individually and on our society as a whole. Jean Twenge, writing for The Atlantic, asked "Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation?" Another piece noted, "Your Smartphone Reduces Your Brainpower, Even if It's Just Sitting There," citing a study indicating that even a silent, powered off phone can be distracting. Many of us can't imagine going back to not having this useful tool. But on the other hand, we acknowledge it would be great if we had more control over the phone than it has over us.

Lent: 40 Days of Gray

Having recognized the particular temptations to distraction represented by their phones, Lent often finds my friends trying to find a way to limit their time. Some give up FaceBook for Lent. Others try to give up games on their phones. Some try to make a point of doing something positive or religious on their phone. The creativity of Lenten resolutions around phone usage is amazing, and even inspiring. It shows that we can recognize the way we feel like slaves to our phones. Even more so, it shows our desire for exercising our free will in a conscious and recollected way, particularly during Lent.

The traditional penitential practices of Lent are fasting, prayer, and almsgiving. Going grayscale, while not a dietary fasting, nonetheless is a sort of fast, from the flashy and inviting colors of the screens we carry around with us. Grayscale is a choice to abstain from the color we would ordinarily see. Grayscale users find their overall screen time decreases, and this means there should be more time available for intentional prayer.

Together is Better

For the last fifty years, Lenten resolutions have largely been individualistic. But before 1966, all American Catholics shared the same Lenten fasting practices, including daily fasting (one meal, two snacks not totaling a full meal) during the 40 days of Lent. One reason these vigorous practices were possible was that the faithful did them together. Lenten penances were never meant to be a contest of creativity or difficulty; instead they are an opportunity to support one another.

This blog is connected to a FaceBook group for people who are committed to going grayscale for Lent. While members are encouraged also to take up other Lenten resolutions, the Go Gray for Lent group is meant as a way to recognize a shared struggle. Those who are not on FaceBook (or have given it up for Lent!) can follow this blog and let others know about the shared penance by referring others to this post.