The 3 Stages of computer user development

Stage 1 - Innocent Child: Viruses! Security problems! They don’t really exist do they? All that rubbish is just a scare tactic by the AV and firewall software writers in order to sell more product.

Stage 2 - Adolescent: Obsessive about security, virus protection, adware etc after having a system completely fall down on them after between 20mins and 1 week on broadband at Stage 1. Now spends so much time trying to 100% protect their system that they find there’s no time left to actually work or play on the system any more.

Stage 3 – Maturity: Realises that with a few precautions (funnily enough the same ones ignored at Stage 1) you can enjoy the net without being an obsessive compulsive freak, and if the worst does happen it’s only a few hours of your life reinstalling your applications because you now have all your important work and leisure files backed up properly.

In my experience the average time to move from Stage 1 to 2 is between 20mins and 1 week. They tend to stay at Stage 2 for about 2 months before graduating to Stage 3.

Does this match your observations/experiences?