The Sad Demise Of The Screensaver

As technology advances at a lightning pace there are some things that, once considered de rigueur in the world of computers, have been lost in the shuffle, fallen through the cracks as it were. Why do some people say fallen between the cracks, not through them? To fall between the cracks would entail landing safely on a surface and still being around, but I digress. Now obsolete pre-laser printers, if piled one on top of another would resemble Jack’s beanstalk before they toppled over. But let’s take a gander at the fate of the poor old screensaver, once a mainstay of virtually every computer, the original home page, with today’s modern monitors the screensaver has essentially been relegated to the scrap heap, right alongside those giant cellular phones I bet. Sad but true.

Not so long ago we were all told to always have a screensaver that would, well, save our screens. From what you may well ask; from having images burned onto our screens of course. Evidently leaving a static image on a screen for a lengthy period of time could cause it to become permanently etched there. Screensavers evolved in much the same way as video games. The first savers, like their gaming counterpart Pong, were simple yet effective. Keep something moving on that screen – your initials, maybe the time and date, whatever text you wanted would swoop and swirl about majestically saving your screen.

For many people the first thing they did when breaking in a new PC was set up the screensaver. It was like putting your signature on the new device. A person’s screensaver spoke volumes about them, it was an insight into their character like a bumper sticker (hmm…don’t see many of those either, stickers nor bumpers) used to be. They say the eyes are the windows to the soul, well I suggest the screensaver was a similar look at what made the owner tick. People were known by their screensaver; “Hey there’s Phil from advertising, you know him, the guy with the 3D screensaver”.

Offices full of workstations that have been abandoned during lunchtime or coffee break had enough flashing and flickering movement on the PC screens to bring on a seizure. Among the early favourites were bursting fireworks, cute kittens, inspirational words, family pictures and, of course, the ubiquitous aquarium (often complete with bubbling sounds which were audible in the background when talking to the person on the phone, like something out of Jules Verne).

Once the marketing folks got wind of this little necessity they used it to promote brands. Any product worth its salt had its own screensaver. Your company logo swimming across computer screens around the world, what more could you want. Heineken, Coca-Cola, you name it; screensavers became the computer equivalent of the T-shirt, flogging a whole gamut of items.

Sadly the golden days of the screensaver are behind us now. Oh you can still get them but the sense of importance just isn’t there any longer. They’re like former world leaders who pop up here and there addressing the rubber chicken circuit, no doubt they were once important, but now they seem a bit sad. I’d like to think that somewhere there’s a screensaver retirement home. Long halls lined with outdated monitors all housing a saver.

Photo Credits

Images courtesy of DC Stubbs

Guest Author Bio

DC Stubbs
A Montreal writer born and raised who likes to establish balance and juxtapositions; a bit of this and a bit of that. A dash of Yin and a soupçon of Yang, some Peaks and Freans and maybe a bit of a sting in the tail!

Blog / Website: http://dcmontreal.wordpress.com/

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