Honestly I would say no one asking the questions you are should be mining - but the answer is yes it can be very profitable and it can be very worth it - but it can also be a complete waste of time and not worth it at all if you don't know what you are doing.
Its about finding the right coin, that has the right specs for the type of mining you are doing do. Its about knowing if you are better off doing CPU mining or GPU mining. It takes knowing if the coin is POW, POS, or Hybrid. It takes knowing the difference in scrypt, sha256, X11, X13, and X15 hashing algorithms.
Is it worth learning - yes. Is it worth doing before you learn - not in my opinion. So I would suggest to start, learn the difference in the the coin proofs, types, and hashing algorithms. When you do, you will be able to answer all these questions yourself - and I promise despite all the words and terms you don't understand - its not really that hard to learn. 4 or 5 articles on the subject should set you straight. Just look up the terms ;)
The thing is, I am not really that interested (or for that matter motivated) in that kind of expertise, I was just wondering if a newbie like me could use his computer to mine some while it's turned on anyways. But taken from your response I shouldn't bother :P. Actually those were my thoughts already, just figured I should ask someone that actually has some knowledge ;)
There are various ways you could use your computer for mining type activities but if you're not interested in the technology then I would say don't bother because unless you know what you're doing you would only mine a little and you wouldn't be able to keep track of whether it was making or losing you money.
I have quite a few mining rigs and they all make me at least $200 a month of profit, that has been up as high as $800 but I don't "need" them to do anything except mine what I point them at and because I love this technology and crypto I enjoy the process as well as the results.