Thin grey fonts on light grey background

[HidingUnderARock]

Is it just me, or have thin grey fonts on light grey backgrounds become suddenly popular?
Also having very small print using about half of the page, that I have to scale up to read.

Is it supposed to somehow be more relaxing to have less contrast? That is the only explanation I can think of for making so many sites so hard to read.

I wouldn't know, I'd probably not even see there is any writing under those circumstances.