Do most people still use computers, or do people only use a smartphone as their main/only device?
Do most people still use computers, or do people only use a smartphone as their main/only device?
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 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.
I use computers at work. Outside of work I use my phone, my Steamdeck, and my PS5 for my needs/entertainment. After fixing and working on computers all day, I don't wanna even see another computer after I leave the office. So I just don't own one. I borrow my grandma's laptop if I absolutely need to use a computer outside of work lol.
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.
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.
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
Question: am I on the toilet?
Big purchases require big screen.
Idk man, pretty sure musk bought a major world power with the tiny screen
I use a desktop or laptop computer almost daily in my personal life. Mobile devices are terrible for actual productivity. And security. And usability.
And security
Disagree.
Sure, privacy wise, you can say that they are terrible (freedom wise, they are not great either). But Security? Phones are probably the most secure devices (as long as you keep them updated). Verified Boot, Sanboxing for every app, Strict Permission Control, Default Encryptions, Limiting Password attempts per X amount of time, to make brute force difficult, and can even attempt to wipe itself if too many incorrect password entry. Even if an app is malicious, all you need to do is uninstall it and most of the time they do not persist.
Most desktop installations require admin or sudo permissions, one malicious program/package and you gotta wipe clean and reinstall.
Cameras and microphones that have no physical disconnect. Virtual keyboards. NSA subsidies for cheap phones sold in poor areas. Zero visibility or access to OS components without special steps.
Windows let users install and run any junk binary to their appdata folder by default. That's why cryptolocker got real popular around 2010. Granted this isn't supporting my point, but admin is not required in a lot of instances.
I guess I'm saying I disagree with your disagreement. Non-mobile is far more secure. My desktop and laptops do all of the stuff you listed as mobile capabilities.
PC is for gaming and doing things I do on my phone but easier and faster
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.
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).
things that you can’t do on the phone (like filing taxes
I mean you can. All you do is type numbers and maybe the occasional names and addresses. Using a computer onlye makes it slightly easier. I filed my parents taxes on a phone, and its not that hard. (I mean, other than the fact that my parents forced me to because they barely understand English, I fucking hate being the "free tech support" but for translations 😭)
It just goes to show how out of touch I am. It didn't even cross my mind that there would be an app to file your taxes, even though it makes perfect sense.
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've only ever used a high end gaming PC (cost me about $5,300, but it was worth it) to play games, draw, browse the internet, and social media. I'm really not a smartphone kind of person and I think it's because I'm mostly a PC gamer who has grown accustomed to always having a huge 27-inch 2K screen and having everything respond instantaneously, as opposed to a 3-5 second input lag on everything.
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.
I only use my phone when not at home. At home, it’s about 50/50 tablet/desktop.
Desktop computer mainly, sometimes a laptop. Tablets are painful to use IMO
I use my phone a lot when I just don't feel like starting up my computer
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."
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.
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.
For consumption of content, phone to laptop use is probably about 70% phone and 30% laptop.
For production of content, 20% phone and 80% laptop, with Lemmy being a large part of the 20% phone production.
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.
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?
It doesn't have enough pixels to represent 4k 1:1 on every frame. At the field of view I put my screen at, 80 degrees, it can only directly represent about 1440p, but with the micromovements of my head, I see a completely different set of pixels every frame. So I tested, and 4k still looks noticeably sharper than 1440p, so I use it.
Stuff doesn't have to be perfect to still be worth doing. It just has to be worth doing. I very much enjoy where VR is at currently, but I have enjoyed where it was at the whole time so far, and I'm definitely gonna keep enjoying where it's at in the future. Even before it started replacing other things, it was always it's own thing too. And while I still play VR games quite a bit, I also use it for almost everything else now too.
There are a few options for headsets capable of this right now, mine is unfortunately a Meta Quest 3, hard to stomache, but pretty great headset... It's been the easiest and cheapest headset to mod for 14+ hours of comfort and battery life. For me, a halo style head strap has been the best option in my testing, that can be different for each individual, so a BoboVR S3 pro kit was all it took. The default quest 3 face gasket was already comfortable for all day use for me. Infinite battery life by swapping a new one in every 2 hours is barely inconvenient, and luckily I still occasionally forget so the headset battery gets to see a discharge cycle every now and then too without me having to remember to purposefully do it. The batteries can handle charging it back up to full while playing.
The second screen is stored above my normal field of view, I can either glance at it for the normal stuff you would use a second monitor for while gaming or watching TV, generally a browser window that I don't have to tab out of the game to see. Or I can hit a button and both monitors swap places instantly, and the content of the second monitor becomes my temporary priority. Recent use has been having a spec guide open while playing Diablo 4, and generally my social media and various app friends lists are arrayed on that screen, as well as some rain meter gadgets for performance monitoring and stuff. Second monitor stuff.
I also, of course, leave the headset and Virtual Desktop in passthrough mode all the time. So I can still hang out with and talk to my family. And watch TV with them. The TV at the field of view it's at is only about a 720p representation, but it's clear enough to read closed captioning, and if you are old like me, you may remember that DvDs are 540p, and they were good enough for watching epic movies on for years. It's not as good as it will be on the next headset, or the next one after that, but it's good enough to be worth doing for me.
Luckily for me, but unlucky for her, my sister has a bit of night blindness, so she can't watch a TV in a dark room, it would be too bright relative to the rest of the room and hurt her eyes. Works out with the Quest 3 passthrough having a relatively narrow dynamic contrast adjustment. With the lights off, the headset would find the TV too bright relatively too, washing it out and showing only a white rectangle. But with the lights on, I see it as clearly as them, just a third of the resolution.
My sister has also started using my old headset to play on her computer, that headset doesn't have infinite battery life, only about 8 hours, but she has now started plugging it in after and continuing to play. She mainly plays Baldurs Gate 3 on it. The hand controllers serendipitously worked out to be a pretty fun and useful way to play BG3, just mapped "scrollwheel" to camera panning. Since in a windows environment the hand controllers are treated as a mouse input, so the joysticks are scrollwheel input. And yeah, B is right click, so hold B and move your hand to change where the camera is looking, and joystick to move the camera, it's like flying a drone with one hand being a representative of the drone orientation. And otherwise BG3 is mostly about clicking stuff with a few keyboard shotcuts here and there. So, no real limitations from having to essentially use a floating keyboard. Most other "flat" games are best played with a controller. A wireless keyboard and mouse would also be an option. But in a recliner, a controller is probably best.
They didn't say that their VR headset could actually see both of the 4k displays at once. The highest resolution consumer VR headset is 3840 x3744 @ 90hz.
So it isn't a lie to say that I can create a 16k 240hz virtual display but unless my face is right on top of it then it is like reading through a screen door and I'm only seeing, at max 144hz (Index). While VR/AR is incredibly promising, currently it's certainly not a replacement for an actual monitor for high-end tasks (like gaming).
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
Mostly desktop, at least at home. I have 3 laptops and a desktop at work. Phone is for googling, doomscrolling, music, and light reading.
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 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.
Phones are great when mobility is a high priority. Tablet are great for on the go entertainment. Laptops and desktops are great for everything else.
For example, searching information online is so much nicer if you can ctrl click and you have 15 tabs open in no time. Then you can jump between the tabs quickly to compare sources efficiently.
I use a computer 8 hours a day and a tablet and steam deck for entertainment.
I have a laptop that I use for things that I find too cumbersome for a phone such as writing, things that require multiple tabs, anything official/formal. Oh and also for playing pokemon ROM hacks.
Other than that I find a phone satisfies my day to day needs.
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.
So you're saying that people do their taxes on their phones? Everyone I know uses both a computer and a smartphone for different reasons.
Not every part of the world has a tax office work ritual. In my neck of the woods they don't.
And if we are talking about the paperwork heavy countries, there are tax offices in abundance where people come in and have a third party type their info into a computer... could they have done it on their own? yes.
We are identifying trends in this discussion.
Desktop unless I'm away from home or on the shitter.
I use Lemmy and Tumblr on my phone; but I use my computer for gaming quite a bit.
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 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 never on my phone at home except for when sitting on the toilet. 99% of my internet use is either YouTube, Porn or Lemmy and all three are done better on a desktop/laptop. My phone is for podcasts, texting/calls and photography.
I use my mac laptop
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 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.
Get a Samsung and have both in one haha. Kinda.
Lol, was waiting for this comment. DeX gang rise up.
(It is OKish)
I have an inexpensive desktop plugged into my tv, for watching shows and movies. My laptop is my main computer, plugged in to a monitor and surround speakers. My phone is for laying on the couch scrolling brainrot.
I use my computer for pretty much everything but I have a projector so that shit is up on my wall.
I only use smartphone when i have to. I still make lot of typos on my phone and i am typing slow
Add me to the computer only at work club.
No idea about "most people", but I absolutely still use a laptop. In fact using my laptop is more or less my default activity when I'm at home.
Lemmy is not the demographic to ask this question. You're definitely skewed towards using a desktop/laptop here.
Our house is mostly mobile. We each have a laptop but it’s more for “bigger things” like filing taxes, booking a trip, designing something, and filling out forms. We have decided that we are getting a desktop within the next year, however. We have a toddler and it’s important to me that she is able to navigate a mouse and keyboard. I work in a school library and my lesson on using the catalog in 2nd grade begins with how to use a computer mouse because I have some of the only desktops that are left in the school. (I’ve even had grown-ass adults come in and try to touch the screen).
I mostly use my Pix8 phone, but I have a few computers. Primary is a Thinkpad T410, about 13 years old, Win 10. Another T410 that's a media player for the TV, Win 7. A Thinkpad R52 on Win XP, music player, feeds a Sony amp & decent speakers. An Acer desktop, Win7, games, big screen. An old Chromebook just for watching TV & movie mp4s, at work. Two Dell lappy Win 11s, provided and controlled by the employer. Work only.
They just keep working, why change? I only bought one of these new.
Not all of these connect directly to the net.
My wife heavily uses her smartphone. Like, she'll work on spreadsheets on her phone instead of grabbing her laptop.
I'm the opposite. I try to use my phone as little as possible.
I cannot imagine working on spreadsheets on a smartphone. I’m getting a stress headache thinking about it.
I can. Also, the headache is 100% real.
A mobile phone is for emergency calculations only. If your life, job or honor depends on it, you can make it work, but it’s going to suck sooo hard.
A tablet can do much more as long as you have a keyboard. Also, Apple Numbers and Google Sheets are just barely acceptable for light calculations, nothing more.
When you start doing anything even a little bit more demeaning, you really need to use a laptop. Even the browser version of Excel isn’t good enough. You really need to run the actual application.
What, no love for the Kentucky Fried Console?
Phone, computer, tablet.
I use my iPhone and MacBook equally. It is extremely rare that I use my actual tv.
I almost never use my phone, mostly just when I need it for authentication stuff. Computer only for everything else. Hoping to be able to get rid of the phone at some point.
Ubuntu Debian Linux desktop is the best. Friends don't let friends use windows.
