I volunteer at the public library. Almost all the people who come in are phones only, and totally lost on a PC. They come in to fill out gov’t PDFs that won’t open on their phones and to print stuff out. My classmates, in the IT program (!) have a lot of trouble navigating on their laptops, and only a couple of us have desktops at all.
Who goes into IT without knowing how to use a computer?
People hear that it’s a higher paying office job that has a low barrier for entry, not realizing that continuing education and constant learning are mandatory. If you don’t have a passion for it, you struggle.
I ask myself that on a regular basis.
Probably the old assumption “there’s money in computers” is still guiding some people into the wrong field.
I know someone who just started studying game development. No prior programming experience required. I guess that’s not a problem as long as you do your homework properly.
I’d say programming / comp sci are kind of different skill sets. Working in IT basically just requires that you know how to use a computer - I’ve met plenty of devs who are pretty poor with their OS.
I work with a number of developers who don’t know how to find and edit a file on their computer.
Literally.
I can smell the Javascript from here.
The blue collar people I know only use a phone for personal computing, I have a spare laptop I lend to co workers so they can complete CBT and badging if a phone won’t cut it.
More than once I’ve had both my personal laptop and the loaner at a jobsite so the crew can get badged quicker.
In the BDSM community CBT stands for cock & ball torture.
In the mental health community CBT stands for Cognitive Behavioral Therapy.
That’s the first explanation I was able to find, and I still don’t know what everyone here is talking about. Why do Americans love to use so many acronyms for anything and everything?
CBT = computer based training
Thanks. Mystery solved.
Some of the training matches
Damn, I haven’t heard about using a laptop for CBT but that shit probably hurts - that’s gonna be a wide surface area for impact.
My brain: Uncomfortable image of slamming the lid shut
Shit, I just thought of using it as a flat bludgeoning object… I think you have a future as a kinksmith. That’s the special kind of creative thinking.
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Desktop computer mainly, sometimes a laptop. Tablets are painful to use IMO
Phone is for work only. Tower PC for everything else.
I’m probably an outlier.
m8 literally everyone on the fediverse is an outlier 😅
My thoughts exactly. The number of Linux users and programmers here may distort the picture OP gets from these comments.
People are responding personally in this thread, which does not answer the actual question being asked. Lemmizens are very far from most people.
I’d be shocked if most people had PCs any more - at best, an old laptop to lug out for “paperwork.”
I don’t think Lemmy is the right sample to ask this question. Definitely a lot of gamers and tech enthusiasts here.
Personally I avoid doing computer tasks on my phone if I can at all help it. Trying to accomplish tasks on a tiny mobile screen is just frustrating and limited. Have both desktop and laptop that I prefer to use.
Question: am I on the toilet?
I imagine Lemmy skews WAY to the side of PCs/computers. But the average consumer is almost exclusively using their phone for everything except work and taxes. I’m a digital native and I even find browsing Lemmy to be easier via app than browser.
Smartphone is my least common choice. PC most of the time, smart tv for YouTube, tablet, then phone.
Same here, except I haven’t touched my tablet in years.
It mostly gets used to watch YouTube during my nightly bath and when I’m traveling.
I usually play my Switch in the bath :-)
I hope your tablet has IP67 water resistance… 😖
Mine does :) it’s gone for a swim once when it slid out of it’s case. My bath has a shelf in front so it’s generally not over the actual water
Big purchases require big screen.
Idk man, pretty sure musk bought a major world power with the tiny screen
PC is for gaming and doing things I do on my phone but easier and faster
My experience has been that most people only use a computer at work and use their phone or a smart TV for everything else. Although, they usually also own a laptop for when a computer is required
My phone is basically a mp3 player that can do 2FA. And of course for for communicating while traveling, though often enough the phone is only there to provide the hotspot.
But other than that, I’ll use the laptop whenever possible.
I use both. I actually hate web browsing on my phone. Mobile websites are often absolute dogshit and I hate having to read articles on a small screen. I also absolutely fucking HATE shopping on mobile. I do all purchases via my Desktop PC. No idea how people use mobile for all this stuff.
Millennial in the US. These are my main devices: iPhone, gaming pc, steam deck, and an old MacBook Pro.
- iPhone - general phone use, killing time browsing Lemmy when I should be working, playing roms, and Pokémon GO.
- Gaming pc - primary. I prefer doing everything here including shopping because fuck shopping on a phone, I’m a millennial and for big purchases I have to use a big screen and a computer.
- Steam Deck - mobile PC gaming for couch and occasions I’m away from home for a long time.
- MacBook - secondary PC, only when I need a PC and don’t want or can’t be at my desk.
Honestly with how far right big tech has moved, along with the predatory tracking and telemetry, I’m considering giving up smart phones for good. Not sure I even want to bother switching to a Pixel with Graphene OS after my iPhone is done.
I miss simplicity, so I’m actively evaluating if a dumb phone (or even an e-ink dumb phone) is right for me. I’m also evaluating lugging my laptop around when I’m out and about because I can simply buy mobile service and plug in a USB cell modem if I need internet. My old 2012 MacBook Pro running Linux doesn’t track me and treat me like data cattle, so it may be worth carrying that around since I don’t get the same feeling of disgust compared to when I look at my smartphone.
Big tech ruined everything.
Edit: on mobile, fixed some typos
