Nine percent of the more than 14,000 people responding to a survey about cursing or being violent to a computer admitted to hitting their PC with their fist or a baseball bat.
IT security expert Avira found during a consumer security survey of its computer users in December that almost two out of every five people worldwide have cursed at their computers at some point in the past. Ironically, almost the same amount of people admitted to never yelling at their computer during moments of frustration.
In addition, 11 percent of respondents wished for a catastrophic act to happen to their PC, while 9 percent actually have hit their computer with another object (baseball bat, fist, etc.) and 3 percent actually have picked up a computer and smashed it into the ground or against another object in disgust.
“We tried to have some fun with this question of the month since it was December and traditionally, people spend time shopping online with some experiencing problems if a PC stops working or if they cannot access a website at the appropriate time,” said Elisabeth Rothbart, PR manager at Avira. “I think the funny aspect to this question is that an equal number of people curse at their PC vs. being nice to them. There are probably some anger management issues in the results someplace, but we’ll worry about the PC side of things. I don’t recommend violence of any sort toward computers, but I can relate to the feelings of frustration.”