Looks like we can add screen savers to the list of things we have and use that are completely unnecessary (like butlers or… your appendix).

See, just a few years back, the average computer screen used phosphors, which might suffer from “burn-in”, where images left on screen for too long would burn into the screen forever.   That’s why screen savers like the flying star field or the flying toasters were invented (why were early screen saver designers obsessed with flying things?)

But today’s flat-screen LCD monitors are made with completely different materials and “burn-in” is officially no longer a concern.

Yet people still use screen savers as though their life (or the life of their computer) depended on it.  This guy suggests that if you simply turn your monitor off when it’s not in use, instead of using a screen saver, you’ll save energy.  If everyone in your company does it… that energy savings might actually show up on the bottom line (depending on how many people work for you).

Even if you’re not concerned about saving energy, you can still deactivate your screen saver.  It’s not saving anything, preventing anything, or protecting anything.  It’s just… there.