The screen saver might save your computer screen from clouding over time due to images brandishing into it when it has been left on. I have never seen this happen to a computer monitor, but maybe that’s likely due to the ubiquity of screen savers and not because it cannot happen.
That aside, while the screen saver is saving your computer, it likely is doing something else: giving us all a false sense that it’s okay to leave the monitor on for a long period of time. Saving your computer and punishing our environment.
Sure, I know, computers have “sleep” modes allowing for the monitor to go into a more “restful” state and use less energy. But I have seen monitors remain on for way to long after the user has left. The attitude that pressing a button is too difficult just does not resonate with me. It’s a simple task and one that saves energy from being used unnecessarily.
Indeed, it may be only, “your” computer, so it is “not that big of a deal.”
Not a big deal? Just think if everyone has that logic that, “it’s only my computer, so it’s not that much energy, and it’s only 30 minutes before it shuts off.”
Third grade mathematics come in useful to show how this is a big deal: Thirty minutes multiplied by let’s say, 50 million computers (just to throw out a round number) equals 50 million hours of computer monitors being left on, potentially every day, to consume energy after the user has left, just in the U.S. Wow! There are 300 million people in the U.S., so let’s say the 50 million computer estimate is reasonable, if not conservative.
Computer monitors use energy for producing the images we see, but they also have the bi-product of significant amounts of heat. In the summer, this means more air conditioning and thus even more energy use. In the winter, this is an inefficient way to heat a building or home (we have heaters for that). In the end, it’s wasted energy.
So yes there is value to the screen saver, just in case we forget. The sleep mode is also a nice featuer because of that conversation with John from down the hall you thought would take 5 minutes actually took you 45 minutes (that John’s a talker). But do try, when you step away, to flick the switch — especially at the end of the day.
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