Screensavers were initially invented as a way to prevent 'burn in' on computer screens. Burn-in is what happens when a single image is displayed on screen for an extended period of time, resulting in a 'burn' of that image permanently damaging your screen.
The older, earlier generation CRT monitors, particularly the black and white ones would generate a mark on the glass screen if a static image was left on for overly long. As an example you may have been playing a computer game, pressed the pause button to answer the ringing phone, and got so caught up in the conversation that you forgot about the computer. By the time you come back an hour later, the image would have burnt onto the display, leaving your computer monitor irreparably damaged. With an automatically starting screensaver installed, this situation would have been prevented.Today, with the prevalence of newer more advanced CRT and LCD screens, which are highly resistant to display damage, burn-in is no longer an issue. These newer generation of monitors have in built energy-saver capabilities, which renders them highly resistant to phosphor burn in.However this does not mean that screensavers are now useless. They are in fact still very popular, and are used mainly for aesthetic, entertainment appeal.There are many animated and complex screensavers which people put on their computers to watch them as their monitor screens idle. These more complex screensavers do however use up a good deal of CPU, and are not strictly a good option for computers with lower memory. Some examples of animated screensavers which are very popular are the aquarium or moving fish ones.A couple alternatives to animated screensavers, are either a blank screen, which is quite boring, or, better yet, a wallpaper or slide show screensaver. Slide show screensavers display a continuous rotation of either photos, or wallpaper images on the screen, which are both entertaining and use minor CPU power. Many of them now come with special transition effects between each rotating image, which can make for quite interesting viewing in itself.There are many different types of wallpaper screensavers floating around the net, which cater to all different tastes, including celebrities, cars, movies, nature, cartoons and many more. Some people may even prefer to build their very own screensavers, with family photos or pictures of pets or friends.So in conclusion, are screensavers still necessary from 2007 onwards? The answer is certainly a no. However that does not mean that they aren’t still being enjoyed by millions of computer users around the world. Computers today are becoming very personal objects, as we interact with them daily, and a screenaver can serve as another avenue of customization.
