What do people do with their pc's?

I have observed that most people have a rather simple private use of their PC - mainly because they don't understand how the darn thing works. They do mail, skype, social sites and maybe occasionally they look something up on the internet.

Then there is the big group of gamers. They are in their own world with special requirements and special problems.

Probably the biggest group are the people that need to use a PC for their job. But those usually operate special application programs geared to their professional requirements.

The last, and probably the smallest group, are the geeks. They do all kinds of things because they understand how to operate the system.

I have studied the 800 members of my computer club. I was really amazed how little they knew about their PC. Any change in their system (e.g. an IE upgrade) was a major challenge for them. I was trying to teach a little about how Windows functions (really at kindergarden level), but most were unable to follow. After a dozen classes I gave up. It was not worth my time because I went thru great trouble preparing the class materials (that most course participants did not even download).

If you want to have a peak, you can download the materials of one clas from here and here.

whs said:

I have studied the 800 members of my computer club.

Computer club? What was that?

EDIT: downloading the materials.

EDIT2: got to the site from the links in the materials. From the pics most of the participants seem to be 50yo and older. Which I guess is normal for a club of retired people.
Although from personal experience bulk of 35+ yo people here isn't so much better, and some specific demographics (insert random misogynous joke about women and computers) seem to be better suited for tablets regardless.

Point is, they don't care of the PC, they want to do other stuff like taking pics and posting stuff to friends and take the easiest possible route.

Mostly entertainment but with a healthy dose of business thrown in. Internet,more internet,business records,Movies and music, and Gaming. When I really feel froggy I'll bring up Blender and play around a bit with that. Some EXTREMELY basic photo-editing, mainly because I want to make my own signature for here.

Am eager to see your class materials whs,will be trying to download them after I post this reply. Hope this wifi will let me. (Serious restrictions on this busses wifi) Have always been impressed with your tutorials and helpful posts so am looking forward to seeing them.

(Nope! @!&^#^%$# its blocked also. How/why would you block skydrive? Will have to see them later )

Many thanks to all so far very good.

1. Data Storage, all backed up to the teeth (I'm a data junkie)
.....Personal records
.....Music
.....Sheet music
.....Receipts
.....Statements
.....Photos
.....Videos
.....Medical records
.....e-Books
.....Educational
2. Ripping music from CDs
3. Playing music
4. Downloading music
5. Professional music arranging (used to have a band)
6. Watching videos
7. Shopping
8. Document creation
.....Scanning "dead tree" books and magazines to PDFs (I have too many books and not enough space)
.....Tutorials
.....Cheat sheets for projects
.....Shopping and to-do lists (3x5 cards are easier for me to use)
.....Music notation (creating sheet music)
.....Some writing
.....Some audio editing
9. Photo Editing
10. Video editing (some day, now that I have a rig capable of it)
11. Communication (mostly e-mail; I do not use social media)
12. Web surfing, personal education, and research
13. Organizing my life (I have ADHD and need all the help I can get)
14. Managing finances
15. Streaming some videos and missed TV shows
16. Streaming stored videos to TVs (eventually)

At work
1. Data recovery
2. Research
3. Disk scanning and repair
4. script development
5. email
Home
1. gaming
2. videos
3. music