I used to quite like being the guy people asked about tech. Over the last few years though it’s become a real pain in the ass.
I had my first ‘support’ call from a family member at 8:33 am one morning last week. It’s no exaggeration to say I get hundreds of individual questions a week on this stuff. On top of that people seem to like to vent to me about their tech failures too. I’ve had enough.
I’m sure a lot of you reading this are in the same position – the designated ‘techie’ amongst your friends and family. While the tech has got better in one way, the irony is the more simple something supposedly gets to operate the more complexity there is going on behind the scenes to give that illusion.
That in turn means nearly everything in modern tech life – tablets, PCs, mobile phones, cordless phones, printers, routers, wifi extenders – will disappoint at some stage. And that’s just the hardware. Then there’s the browsers, software updates, malware and virus too.
It’s easy to see how this can all be a mystery for users once it goes outside their experience. But please, if you’re one of the ones badgering your techie friend then try and help yourself first. Switch it off and on again first (really). If that doesn’t sort it then try Google. We don’t mind helping when you’re really stuck, but it’s time to take advantages of all the great resources out there and help yourself first.
Oh, and don’t forget to thank your poor techie this Christmas 🙂
So true !!
At one point a few years ago I created set of business cards that I could handed out to those who needed my help. The slogan was “You F*ck it, I’ll fix it”
But these days I try to avoid it as it eats into your time. I don’t mind the odd one now and again but I mostly send them in the direction of Google as much as possible.
Understand your anguish. Even in an IT job a wise friend suggested if this is the first time you’ve seen a problem then just fix it don’t troubleshoot, if it happens again then troubleshoot. Whilst the need to turn a PC off and on again has significantly reduced over the years many other pieces of equipment now require this procedure. Although I tend to say turn it off, wait 15 seconds, turn it on.
Paul
I’ve got into the habit of just saying that I don’t know how to fix something even if I know I could look it up.
“I don’t own any iOS/Samsung/LG devices so I wouldn’t even know where to start. Have you checked Google”