“When a user gets a notification on their phone, a chemical called dopamine is released into the region of the brain neuroscientists refer to as the reward and pleasure center. This feeling of satisfaction can get rather addictive and as a result people find themselves checking their phones more compulsively in the hope for another hit. Sound familiar? Could something as small as switching my phone to grayscale really help me? For the whole month of July, I decided to run an experiment to see if I could get an answer to this question, the findings were pleasantly surprising.” Paul Adshead

Today take time to read about Paul’s grayscale experiment. The article is well written, offers guidance on how to go grey on your phone, and reports on the unexpected and useful results of his experiment. It also illustrates some things that we emphasise a lot here on the Still Web: Reducing sensory stimulation in any way will help us notice unskilful habit and the only way to learn to relate to technology more skilfully is by inquiring into its effects on each of us personally. We do this by setting experiments and noting results over time. Paul did this for a full month and we think this is an effective way to work past rationalising unconscious habit in tech use. We hope you will set your own experiment after taking time today to read his article. Tell us how you get on.

Tweet your response to @livedtime and be sure to include the hashtag #tds1256



This Daily Stillness has been recycled from previously published ones:

#tds789 Simplify your life, go grey! (Aug 27, 2017)

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