First World Penance: Grayscale for Lent

I started this in 2016 and it has really taken off.

I don’t think you should do this for Lent. It’s absolutely miserable. Think about how much time you spend staring at all your devices. Now imagine all the beauty sucked out of them and you are just staring at shades of gray. It’s terrible. You’ll probably use your devices less. Social media isn’t nearly as fun. Movies and TV shows will look like they are from the 50s. You really shouldn’t do this. But if you must…

Typically during Lent I’ll do a few different things. Always something spiritual, usually something physical, and often something really penitential.

For the last seven years, I also do something I call First World Penance. For some, that’s maybe giving up social media. One year I deleted all but the apps that came pre-installed on my iPhone.

This year, I am again going grayscale. The idea started when I decided to post only black and white photos during Lent. That sort of made everyone else suffer.

So I’m setting my iPhone to grayscale. Instagram in grayscale, Facebook in grayscale, YouTube in grayscale, even the photos and videos I take – which you know is a lot – I’ll only see in grayscale.

If you’d like to suck the life out of your digital Lent, on your iPhone or iPad, go to Settings > Accessibility > Display & Text Size > Color Filters > turn on Color Filters > select Grayscale > Suffer Miserably.

Quite a few people are doing this, but it’s definitely not for everyone.

Imagine how much more beautiful the world will be after the Resurrection!

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