It is a tip that is going around by word of mouth: setting your mobile screen to black and white would reduce the time we spend using it… Less attractive than the bright colours of our wallpapers and app icons, black and white would invite us to practise asceticism in our consumption.
But let us start at the beginning: how long do we use our smartphone each week? New features have appeared on most of our dashboards, counting the time spent each day, the number of times the phone is activated and the type of activity. For those who do not have them, apps such as “Moment” on iOS or “Quality time” on Android provide the same service. According to a comScore survey carried out in 2017 in the United States, an American adult spends almost 3 hours a day on their smartphone on average, with the 16–24 age group of course the heaviest users. In Europe it would be a little less, around 2 hours a day on average. But 2 hours a day over 7 days comes to… 14 hours! That is a whole day from waking up to going to bed!!
“Digital wellbeing”, as Google calls it, will be a major issue in the coming years. Let’s not be fooled: Google wants our “digital wellbeing” so that we do not develop an aversion! That said, being able to control our consumption better, to consume less and better, is an issue that is particularly close to our hearts at Trois-Six-Neuf-Douze, for children and their parents alike.
But back to black and white: to date there is no study telling us whether it is actually effective on the time spent on our smartphones. We come back here to the usual problem encountered in the field of the relationship with screens and anti-screen campaigns: lots of words, catchy slogans, but ultimately little scientific verification.
In this particular case, however, why not try it? Technically it is simple, and you will easily find the steps to follow on the internet. What is more, a black and white screen uses less energy, so it is good for the planet! We could even launch a “challenge” on the 3-6-9-12 site: one month in black and white, how much screen time?
To get the movement started, I propose to try it out and report back next month. I therefore have to confess that the weekly figure displayed on my smartphone – which alarms me! – is 8 to 9 hours a week, with the number of activations reaching up to a hundred on the blackest days… 8 to 9 hours a week is less than the average. And yet I cannot be satisfied with it. Eight hours is… a working day, one or two books read, four trips to the cinema, six sports sessions! It is also, and above all, a lot of attention stolen from my loved ones, a lot of attention stolen from life. We cannot keep complaining about a lack of time and let it slip through our fingers like this.
So it’s decided: I’m switching to black and white and will give you news in the next newsletter!
Medical director of the André Boulloche Day Hospital for Children in Paris, she works more particularly on the relationships that young people have with screens, communication with young children, and autism.
