What Were Screensavers Even For?
On old (now very old) CRT monitors, an image could be burned into the screen permanently if it displayed for too long. To prevent that, the computer God’s brought us screensavers—they literally saved your screen.
Thanks to the glory of LCDs and newer displays, we don’t have to worry about this 20th century problem. But screensavers were also about self expression. There’s less of a need for that in the screensaver department now that you can change your Instagram profile picture. But for a while, “Flying Through Space” wasn’t just my screensaver, it was my identity.
