First of all, ignore anyone that says you're stupid for being concerned about security.
Norton is as good as any other as far as the average user is concerned.
As long as you keep up to date with your anti-virus then you're doing nothing wrong mate
Norton software (particularly norton utilities) in the past, has had bad stability problems, but that has changed in the last year or so.
If you can do so, I would re-install your operating system if you continue getting lockups or software errors.