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.
this post was submitted on 20 Feb 2025
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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.
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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?
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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."
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.
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.
Smartphone is my least common choice. PC most of the time, smart tv for YouTube, tablet, then phone.
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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.
The average non-tech person only has a phone. And maybe a shared family notebook if at any point someone needed a computer for things that you can't do on the phone (like filing taxes and such).
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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
i see more and more mobile-only households all the time. and people with landline internet at home that has never seen a pc. only televisions, phones and tablets. an increasing number of people don't even have that, they live off their cell phone's internet.
personally, i'm 'desktop only'. my phone i use only as a phone. i have no tablet, no watch, no gaming console. my laptops never leave home, they're just 'small desktops'. when i need one, i grab some spare junk from the office to take to a site.
Mostly desktop, at least at home. I have 3 laptops and a desktop at work. Phone is for googling, doomscrolling, music, and light reading.
Seems like smartphones are generally used more often than PCs among younger cohorts compared to older. In Britain at least.
That's a very different question. A smartphone can to some degree emulate the other devices listed so when people are asked to pick only one device most are naturally going to choose that even if it's not currently their primary device, and since they could only choose one it's not useful in determining how many people use other devices. It also appears to be a follow-up question asking about second most important devices so it's definitely not useful out of context.
From that survey question alone you cannot reasonably claim which device is used most often.
I use Lemmy and Tumblr on my phone; but I use my computer for gaming quite a bit.
I may be an outlier (well, maybe not on lemmy...), but I have 4 PCs that I use regularly:
- Daily driver laptop
- Work-ish laptop
- Storage server
- Utility server
These are the ones I am left with after getting rid of some hardware I didn't need.
Back during early COVID there were a bunch of people caught out not having anywhere to work from in their home.
That to me suggested a lot about where phone and tablet usage have gone, and where desktop and laptop usage has now gone. It seems a lot people see laptops and computers as specialist devices.
There are at least four computers and three laptops in my house, but not chance my friends have that.
In my neck of the woods: phone only for the vast majority of people.
Even people who use a computer professionally at work don't use one at home.
The only people with home computers I know of are millennials who grew up with them. Younger and older simply don't have computers at all in their lives. Nobody can type anymore.
Monitor and keyboards won't disappear, but it will become more niche with time. It won't be a universal experience like it used to be.
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I use my computer for pretty much everything but I have a projector so that shit is up on my wall.
I think I use my phone mostly, by time spent, not counting work. Important things I usually do on my desktop. If I had my druthers I’d have more time to spend on the desktop instead of the phone, but I’ve got two young kids so I can only do so much
I'm a software/data engineer, so for work I obviously use a computer all the time. I also have a very nice personal computer but it doesn't get as much use anymore as it used to. I play the occasional game on it, use it for tracking our budget/finances and stuff once a month, manage my plex server, and do the occasional random task on it that requires things like typing or photo editing. But it's not been getting a lot of attention since I finished school, even less since having my daughter. Also I have automated a lot of my tasks so that I don't need to manage it as much.
My phone is my main device for most of my entertainment, web surfing, news reading, banking, etc. plus it keeps my todos/shopping lists, my wife and I's shared calendar, my alarms, digital coupons for groceries, GPS... all of my regular day to day task helpers. Not to mention is takes and stores my photos, allows me to call and text people, and gives me mobile access to my cloud files and services. It's definitely my primary device.
But I still love my desktop and wish I had more time to do my own work on it.
I have a high-end gaming computer, but it is headless(doesn't have a monitor) I use a VR headset and Virtual desktop instead of a monitor. In Virtual desktop I have two 4k 120hz screens. I use my computer from a comfy recliner, or standing, or walking around. Whatever fits the use case. While in my home, or any home with decent wi-fi, I have access to my gaming PC. And I can live the augmented reality life.
Cell internet isn't quite good enough for the same thing to be possible out and about yet. But it's honestly not that far off. It's good enough for a productivity desktop experience, but streaming a 4k game or video is not great on cell. Might be viable if I drop it to one 1080p monitor at 60hz and drop the bandwidth target to 1/8th or so. Haven't tried. Assuming the consistency of bandwidth will be a concern. Too many sporadically dropped packets for unbuffered video to play smoothly.
But for the most part, the VR headset has replaced my computer monitor, my TV, and my phone while at home. It's an android based headset, so I can load any phone games I play on it. And play them on a 6 foot wide "phone" using my hands as hyper accurate laser pointers instead of mashing the screen with fingers, covering up the very thing I need to poke.
What headset do you use that can output that resolution at that refresh rate?
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I'm on my laptop all the time, and I don't use a smartphone at all. I'm not a luddite, I just don't like the world of smartphones. I enjoy being disconnected when I'm out. I enjoy using an OS that I can control and modify to my heart's content. Am I weird? Do I care? My friends keep forgetting and try to send texts to my landline though, which is annoying. I might replace my landline with a dumb phone, maybe. Ftr, I'm a millenial.
I think a big majority of the general population are phone-only on their own time, and a bunch of those use a PC just for work.
Personally I just use all the computers. I use my phone plenty, and I’m on my work machine all day. Then at home I just put together a nice setup with the desktop’s monitors on arms attached to a big table next to the couch. So I can just be chilling in the family room and swing a monitor over in front of me. It’s made me use the PC a lot more.
I only use smartphone when i have to. I still make lot of typos on my phone and i am typing slow
Lemmy is not the demographic to ask this question. You're definitely skewed towards using a desktop/laptop here.
I work from home, so I have a decent setup in my office involving a MacBook Pro and two monitors.
I also have an iPad that I draw with and when I’m not drawing on it I hook it to my soundbar and play music and podcasts while I work.
Phone all of the rest of the time.
I use mostly my phone for everything not work related. It's in my pocket at all times. It's faster than my ancient ThinkPad. It uses less power. It has a higher resolution screen. It has better speakers. Other than keyboard, it's better in every way.
Unless I need to type more than 3 minutes, or open more than 3 tabs, I just use my phone. Includes sshing into the odd server for a quick check or tweak.
My wife uses her laptop maybe once a month. Most "normies" rarely use a computer, some even don't own one.