FREE: Save Your Mind as You Save Your Screen

Man and Machine

Ever have trouble adjusting to the pace and pattern of this present digital age? As if life and work demanded ever-increasing attention and ever-faster response? As if your human pace and human capacities were inadequately suited for a world that is becoming increasingly mechanized, systematized, computerized, digitized? One author has written recently, “Everything that human beings are doing to make it easier to operate computer networks is at the same time, but for different reasons, making it easier for computer networks to operate human beings.”1 Another wrote in 1967 that “We shape our tools and thereafter they shape us.”2
 

Humanity at Risk

Perhaps motivated by such feelings of paranoia, I recently picked up Nicholas Carr’s book The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains. I found that, to a certain extent, such feelings are now being justified in multiple fields by the latest research done by neurobiologists, psychologists, educators, and even web designers. As Carr states, the computer and the internet are powerful tools and are here to stay but we would do well, before we give ourselves heedlessly to any new technology, to consider how much of an impact such activity will have on our habits, our culture, and our children. Well, we say its time to fight back — by taking steps to help us all be a little more mindful of our choices and their consequences.
 

Fight Against the Machines

Therefore, as a public service (and for a little bit of design fun) we offer you four FREE new images created by Design Corps. These cool and colorful JPGs with their tongue-in-cheek “warnings” make ideal desktop backgrounds or screen savers and will remind you of the importance of staying human. Think of it as one small acte de résistance in the face of our coming digital apocalypse. Help save your mind while you save your screen. And actually be encouraged to unplug once in a while — take a hike, play with your child, or go out for coffee with a friend.
 

All images are high-quality, web-optimized JPGs and come in pixel dimensions of 1680×1050 or 1024×768. Choose the ideal size for your computer. Then click to download a zipped package of four JPGs. There may be more in this series in the future. Check for them by going on our Design Corps Facebook page, and feel free to let us know your ideas of technological angst for future wallpaper designs. “Like” the page and check back for more free items.

DOWNLOAD 1680×1050 MINDSAVERS (total size 1.8 MB)

DOWNLOAD 1024×768 MINDSAVERS (total size 1.0 MB)

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Special thanks to Nicholas Carr who graciously gave Design Corps permission to use quotes from his book: The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains (2010, W. W. Norton). I can highly recommend it as a captivating blend of social commentary, technological history, and modern medical research. It is not in the least preachy nor alarmist but comes across as a well researched and level-headed discussion on a topic pertinent to all of us. You can find out more about the author and the book at Nicolas Carr’s web site: www.nicholasgcarr.com, or on his blog at www.roughtype.com.

Quotes in this article were found in Nicholas Carr’s book The Shallows and were referenced as follows:
1 George B. Dyson, Darwin Among the Machines: The Evolution of Global Intelligence (Reading, MA: Addison Wesley, 1997), 10.
2 John M. Culkin, “A Schoolman’s Guide to Marshall McLuhan,” Saturday Review, March 18, 1967.