Are you tech support for your friends/family?

[090907]

One more Tech Support ***** reporting for duty. It's bad enough I do it at work. But they ALWAYS ask me.

 

[Aschenkatza]

Thankfully, no. I blow up computers just by touching them.
My brother is though!

 

[Reaperman Wompa]

No, but family members and people from school have been asking me how to spell certain words since I was 9. As Tech Support goes I can barely turn my computer on, let alone do complicated tech stuff.

 

[Kippebout]

When I lived back at my folks home I taught my Mom how to use a computer. She couldn't find the start menu if she wanted to. Now she has enough skill to open a webbrowser and check her mail and do most basic stuff.

Still if there's a problem then they'll call me. Yesterday, I was at the theater with a nice girl and my sister calls me because she wanted to know how to pick stuff up in sims 2.

Sometimes they just got to figure it out themselves.

 

[TZer0]

Removed.

 

[hippo24]

I get pestered by friends and family constantly about technical and computer questions.
Thankfully I'm not the only geek in my family, or in my circle of friends.

 

[oktalist]

I stopped giving tech support ever since Windows Vista emerged, for the sake of my mental health. I'm happy to not know anything about Windows any more, so people can say "hey you know about computers, fix this" and I can say "sorry, don't know Windows." Hah! Bite me.

My dad is 78 years old; he's been developing software since the 1960s. But Windows continues to confound him.

 

[Arkfeller]

Yes.

'Nuff said.

 

[The Black Adder]

Yeah they always come to me and if I can't figure it out I can just call my dad. The most annoying thing though is explaining something that you find relatively simple that you can do in two seconds but take forever to someone else to figure it out.

 

[The Black Adder]

Oh God am I my family's tech guy, they're almost Amish. But they still barely trust anything I say (ex: they refused for the longest time to get Firefox because it had nothing to do with Microsoft). Going home is terrible, I have to deal with dial-up.

Wow so there is more than just me that suffers though that. I DLed FF to my dads comp and got blamed for "messing it up". I swear they are so affraid to do anything on a computer other than use IE and microsoft word.

That sounds like my friends dad. He once deleted all my friends music off the computer because "the computer was running slow". And one time I had to go over there and help my friend fix his computer when his dad wasn't home, because his dad hates me and thinks that I am an idiot. Meanwhile he's just a belligerent alcoholic.

 

[ManiacalZManiac]

I can usually fix most computer problems in my house. We have three laptops all different brands. One is XP and others are Vista. So memorizing different user interfaces is a tad bit annoying.

But, for some reason, my mother somehow fixes problems I can't, and she can barely copy/paste. 0_o

 

[KeithA45]

I used to be. But, anymore, I refuse. I stopped providing tech support years ago, and my family just kinda wandered off to deal with their tech problems on their own.

I've just recently figured out that when my friends call for tech support if I just keep repeating "Google it!" and "Figure it out!" a few times they eventually find something. They even give me the credit for fixing it sometimes too, which is cool I guess but it means that they're just going to call me next time...

 

[S.H.A.R.P.]

Fortunately I'm not always there to be relied upon, and actually be a helpdesk for my peers. I do help people out though. I composed and assembled the pc of my sister, and my aunt. And I helped a friend with it. I format pc's sometimes, but I don't keep my knowledge up to date enough to be able to recommend things like anti-virus applications.

 

[KeithA45]

Wait a minute, did the moderators change the title of this post? When I made it and bookmarked it it was, "Are you a tech support *****?"

EDIT: I changed it from "Are you a tech support for your family" to "Are you tech support for your friends/family?" (The "a" left over from when the moderators must have changed it didn't sound right)

 

[Beefcakes]

Am I ever, and I'm also the fastest typer in my family, so I'm usually the one typing up essays and reports at 11pm as there due the next day.

I clicked this MSN thing because they said I looked funny in a picture, and the computer said something about trojans? I dunno I barely touched it! It did it itself!

Me to the rescue!
*Cue apathetic theme music as I walk in the door, also apathetic*
*Fix*
*No thanks/Get blaimed*
*Leave*

Yay for this new technological age we live in...

 

[StarryXNights]

I am the support for my family, close and otherwise...I am often tempted just to tell them to turn it off and back on.

 

[Cowabungaa]

My family and lots of friends, classmates go by "He uses the computer a lot, thus he knows everything about the damned things." Ofcourse I don't, I just play games dammit. Yea I can replace a videocard or a PSU, but no I can't fix your damned internet just because I play some games.

 

[Eclectic Dreck]

Yes. It doesn't help that I'm professional tech support for businesses in my area either.

 

[willard3]

My family and lots of friends, classmates go by "He uses the computer a lot, thus he knows everything about the damned things." Ofcourse I don't, I just play games dammit. Yea I can replace a videocard or a PSU, but no I can't fix your damned internet just because I play some games.

Yup. For a while, that was me. About 5 years ago I started to get more tech-savvy and am now one of the techie supports for my mom. (my dad is usually pretty good) Recently she was constantly asking me what a "DVD region" was and which one should she get.

 

[KeithA45]

Yup. For a while, that was me. About 5 years ago I started to get more tech-savvy and am now one of the techie supports for my mom. (my dad is usually pretty good) Recently she was constantly asking me what a "DVD region" was and which one should she get.

I admit I had to look that up ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DVD_region_code ) although I've heard of it before now that I see it.

See I think part of being good at computers is being able to prioritize. I've heard of friends who freeze in their tracks on the computer because they got a "FireFox crashed" message. They believe the message to be so dire that they're considering replacing their hard drive (and by that I mean pay someone else to do it).

Yet at the same time I occasionally get the "My computer keeps crashing and locking up, I think the problem is all the "Update Now!" notifications I get from my computer and anti-virus". They just don't realize that when the computer says it needs an update, 99.9% of the time it's a VERY GOOD thing that shouldn't be put off for over 12 months (I swear it's true).

Back on topic, my friend who's barely left the state once mentioned considering the regional format a camcorder recorded in when shopping for one. I had to ask, "What are the chances that will ever make a difference to you?" Some people need to realize the priority of the different aspects of technology/computers