Why that Desktop Wallpaper after all?
By Amelie Gam
When my parents’ generation used to talk about wallpaper, they meant that piece of colorful paper that would be glued to the walls, instead of painting them. The wallpaper was preferred to painting because it was sometimes cuter than any pattern that could be created by paint and it was also supposed to endure more than paint. My head is full of images of couples moving into a new house and going to choose the proper wallpaper for the dining room and the children’s room. They would come back with huge packages in which the wallpaper was wrapped.
Nowadays when we say wallpaper we actually mean desktop wallpaper, which is the cover of our computer screen, what we see in front of our eyes when we stop working for a few minutes and close the applications. For people who spend a lot of time in front of their computers, the desktop wallpaper is much more important than any element of interior design at home. And, since more and more of us are spending their time in front of the computer, then the desktop wallpaper is a concern for more and more of us.
Most people doing a regular office job would have the typical commonplace desktop wallpaper. The usual desktop wallpaper is a flower, the image of a forest, the sea. Such pictures can be easily found on the Internet and downloaded as free wallpaper on any number of web pages. The desktop wallpaper becomes more exciting if it belongs to someone who has a specific hobby or to a computer specialist. Then, instead of desktop wallpaper, we actually have a celebration of this or that actor, or a very complicated 3-D image that we cannot easily identify.
In these special cases, it may be more difficult to get free wallpaper with the desired image. True fans will look through hundreds of Internet sites that have an offer for free wallpaper just to find the right desktop wallpaper. And it may not be so easy for them to find the free wallpaper they want. Even if they find the right desktop wallpaper, they may have to pay money for it. Then they will complain that the free wallpaper is not the right desktop wallpaper and that the Internet companies are ripping people off. In their quest for the best desktop wallpaper, these people will keep changing and changing their desktop wallpaper, so you may end up having a lot of fun just taking a look at their desktop wallpaper every day.
You may wonder how come you can find free wallpaper so easy, especially if you have no specific demands. Who puts that free wallpaper online for unlimited download and why? Maybe this is not necessarily a question that so many people ask, but it is certainly a question that may pop up in those dead minutes at work when you are trapped until the next report comes in, so you have nothing better to do than stare at your desktop wallpaper and wonder. The truth is that it isn’t important where the free wallpaper comes from. What really counts is the effect it has on us.
It is your desktop wallpaper that makes you relax, smile and sometimes remember. And all of this just because one afternoon you really wanted to put something nice in front of your eyes, to help through some of the more tedious days at work. You went through many Internet pages with images and found a website with the possibility to download free wallpaper. You finally found one with beautiful images of coffee shops. You like that because it reminds you of how you really like to spend your time instead of being stuck in an office with no air conditioning. You would rather be in a coffee shop chatting with your friends. Then you also remember that on that. The free wallpaper you chose was an image of a coffee cup on a table. You have no more time to stare at your desktop wallpaper. The report is in and you must get down to work.
Free wallpaper brings a smile on our faces from time to time when we can afford a brake from routine. Whether it reminds us of the wallpaper in our childhood room or whether it makes us relax just thinking of our good moments, free wallpaper is like the coffee we drink in the morning: indispensable.