how do married couples (especially w/ kids) treat the home computer usage?

In My Humble Opinion
1

as always, please point me to the relevant thread, if this has already been discussed…

but it just crossed my mind - after having lived alone for the last 18 years, and never giving a fuck, what “cookies” or “History” were on my computer (accidentally-downloaded viruses aside, obviously - though moreso for the “out of pocket expense” of having to get it repaired, rather than the “embarrassment” factor)…

but how do married couples treat “the computer” deal? Is there one home computer in the house, and everyone shares it? Or are we in a “laptop age”, where Mike, Carol, Greg, and Marcia all have their own… and eventually Peter, Jan, Bobby, and Cindy will as well?

What if Carol, Greg, Marcia, and Alice are all out of town to visit Grandma for the weekend - does Mike just hang back, and maybe check out some porn on the family computer for a night, then spend the next 12 hours deleting all the cookies/History?

What about your personal email/SDMB account? Do you log in, check your emails/messages, then make double-damn sure you logout of your account, so your spouse can then log in from scratch?

Do you share passwords/email-addresses (not in the “email us at MikeandCarol’@'BradyBunch.com” way, but do you have access to each other’s accounts?)

This sort of thing would fascinate me to read about, and again - this HAS to have been discussed before (and if it has, please point me that direction and we’ll call this thread “locked”)

Thanks -

2

When I still lived at home with my brother and parents, everyone had their own Windows login. Your browser contained only your logins and your history. Your email app only checked your email.

It still works this way. Probably for Macs too.

3

We’re in the laptop age, speaking for my household personally.

4

I don’t have kids, but I sure as hell wouldn’t have one computer that they can then screw up by downloading the wrong torrents, and be out of commission.

Yes. Or just use “Private Browsing.” I had to hide my porn the hard was as a teenager.

Can’t they click “logout” themselves? I don’t have much to hide, but am a private person and don’t like people looking at my stuff. Still, I wouldn’t be paranoid about logging out every time.

I wouldn’t. Email is free and easy, no reason for people to not to have their own. I don’t share my passwords readily, but I’d give it if I needed something and couldn’t access. I could probably get into SO’s accounts by guessing the variations of passwords, but have little need to. As far as kids, I don’t think it is a privacy/protocol breach to know their passwords, especially under a certain age.

Now, now. No reason to lock unless it’s been done extreme recently. Always something interesting. to get out of a new repeat.

5

The latest OS’s from Microsoft have individual accounts with an administrator account to handle them (add, delete, modify…) As mentioned by ZipperJJ, each account has its own set of browser histories, downloads, documents, etc.

Also, Chrome and Firefox both have ‘stealth’ modes that don’t leave behind traces in your history. I suppose IE has it now as well, but I don’t use it.

6

No kids here, but my husband and I each have our own laptops and iPads. If we had to share a computer we’d have our own logins to keep everything separate.

7

We haven’t shared a computer since we could first afford two, a year or so into our marriage. And getting a second computer was pretty urgent: we both spend too much time on the computer to share harmoniously.

The baby is only 8 months, so he shares with us now, but I am sure he will get some sort of hand-me-down pretty damn early.

8

Laptop age here, too. We do have a desktop, and each of us has our own log-in, but it’s not used very often.

9

All my friends are mid-30s and every couple has their own computer or laptop each. The one pair with kids, the kid has her own laptop, which has snooping software installed.

10

Everyone has their own.

11

Everyone has had their own since they’ve been old enough to be responsible enough for one. I used to have a thinnet network running through the house with every computer able to access the internet through one machine with a dial-up modem. Things have upgraded a bit since then.

12

My 7 year old has his own laptop.

<shrug> I don’t like sharing. :smiley:

13

Each of us has a separate log-in on the desktop machines, but over the past five years or so, we’ve each acquired our own laptops as well. Mr. Legend and I have separate email addresses, not because either of us has anything to hide, but both of us like our contacts to be able to send emails specifically to the person they’re trying to reach. We don’t open each other’s personal mail, either.

When the kids were younger, we very purposely placed the family computer in a public area with the monitor positioned so that anyone walking by could see it. If an adult wanted to view something not fit for general consumption, that adult had to either use Mr. Legend’s laptop in the bedroom or wait until the children were safely away. We checked the kids’ browser histories occasionally, but I wouldn’t dream of checking another adult’s internet habits.

14

Not married, but spend part of the week staying at the Fella’s house with him and three kids. At his house, there’s a family desktop with seperate logins for everybody (including me), the Fella has a tablet, the oldest son has a laptop, middle son has an iPhone in lieu of a computer, the youngest son uses the family desktop and I usually have my notebook with me.

At my house, the Fella and the oldest son have their own logins on my desktop, but I’m the only one who uses my notebook.

So, I guess that makes a laptop+ bunch.

15

We’ve had separate computers for a long time now. My wife writes, and so she has her own (just upgraded to a laptop with docking station) and I have one which I bring to work and which has work stuff on it. Some things are just one one, like our Quicken is on hers. Our kids are out of the house and have their own, of course.

16

Laptop age for a year now. Before that, the three kids had to share three desktop computers (they all wanted the newest one).

ETA: We still have two desktops running as well. A Vortexbox runs on one, and one kid uses another one as a MineCraft server.

17

My wife, 3 year old son and I share a laptop computer. It works well enough; there’s enough demand to keep any one of us from parking ourselves on it for an extended period of time.

However, the way you usually end your session is by getting up off the couch, and it’s usually being used when you return to the living room. :slight_smile:

18

No kids in the house. I have a desktop, wife has a laptop. She has a login on my desktop because it has a wired connection, and every so often she needs to upload a file that causes the wireless to baulk, so she puts it on a flash drive and uses my computer. I have a login on her laptop, but can’t recall the last time I used it - it’s just there because I’m the computer guy in our house, so if the thing fucks up in some way, it’ll be my job to fix it.

I don’t log out of my computer or my email/facebook/whatever accounts, so in principle she could view them. She knows I’m a private person; I trust her not to do this.

19

When the kids were 5&6 we started a “bump n roll” implementation plan at our house. Originally it was husband>me>son>daughter but that quickly changed to buying two identical machines at a time. Life in a gamer household.

20

Laptop age except PandaKid doesn’t have her own computer and won’t for a good while. She’s allowed to use the office computer occasionally for Facebook and also for homework.

MrPanda and I don’t share logins/passwords except for bank stuff, Netflix and Amazon. He could probably guess my Facebook password because I’m unoriginal but he wouldn’t know my email passwords, SDMB, blog, etc. I have a vague guess as to what his Facebook/email password could be, but don’t care. I have no reason to check his private stuff online and vice versa … we’re both pretty boring.

Oh we do share one email account together for bills however AFAIK I’m the only one who ever checks it.