Three Weeks Later

Now that I’ve adjusted to life with black and white screens, I can’t believe anyone lives any other way.

The most drastic change is how real the real world feels. Before, after spending a day on the internet, getting up to get food would involve reorienting myself to reality. But I never have that feeling anymore. The computer is never more than a tool I use to get things done.

In fact, I find I don’t overuse the computer anymore at all. If I spend more than a few hours sitting in front of it, my back hurts, and I get bored — exactly what should happen after spending several hours in such an unnatural position.

When I turn my laptop back to full color to enjoy some TV, the interface’s bright buttons and vibrant, saturated colors hurt my eyes the same way staring at a lightbulb would. The colors look absurdly, cartoonishly bright, like a children’s television show on steroids. I have to blink my eyes and wait for them to adjust.

It’s no wonder people can’t tear themselves away. LCDs are like flashing billboards, demanding our attention.

Everyone, except for me. It makes me feel like the only sober one at a campus bar. Everyone else is stumbling around drunk, distracted and unable to focus, while I stand unaffected in the middle of the chaos. You don’t realize how ridiculous a bar full of drunk people looks until you walk in stone cold sober.

It makes me wonder; as a society, how did we ever get used to this in the first place? Like the proverbial boiled frog, our displays were changed little by little over time, and we never noticed.

I’m not saying we should all switch to black and white tech. But maybe we should consider making LCD screens that aren’t so cartoonishly bright; LCD screens that look more like the world we live in.

But even as soon as the words are out of my mouth, I know that won’t happen, because more muted and tasteful LCD color palettes don’t sell on the showroom floor. The challenge isn’t to change what manufacturers make. The challenge is to change what people want to buy.