Poll: Do old people overestimate your tech skills

[Frotality]

quite the opposite. my grandfather recently spent an hour on the phone with some incompetent tech support guy to fix his internet connection when i finally got sick and tired of him screwing around with the settings of everyone's computers, went on his computer when he screwing with mine, and fixed the problem in 5 minutes.

he accidentally changed the router security setting on his wireless network. i literally learned everything i needed to fix the problem in that 5 minutes with my only prior knowledge being that typing your IP in the address bar shows your router's settings.

i really want to know what moron was on the other end of that phone call, because i fixed it in 1/20th the time it took him to accomplish nothing but fucking with my XBOX/Wii/DS connection.

 

[Sentox6]

Frankly, my tech skills are pretty solid. I'm not hacking into the NSA anytime soon, but anything from assembling a PC to writing basic code isn't a problem.

The problem is when old people cease to expect tech skills and start to expect magic. It can be difficult explaining that no, I can't fix that faulty stick of RAM by typing in a command prompt really fast.

 

[Asehujiko]

All the time. Either they demand impossible things like "I have a list of email addresses written on a piece of paper, can you hook up the photocopier to my computer to copy them to outlook express?", think that knowledge of PC building automatically confers mastery of software on macs built before I was born or expect me to be able to fix things with barely more information then a phone call saying "My computer isn't working" and when questioned about the usual stuff(check cables, update drivers/program in question) they steadfastly refuse to lift a finger and instead go "it's on the internet, fix it from your end".

 

[Catchy Slogan]

Sometimes, but the worst offender is my step-brother. " Hey you're a geek with all those games, so you'll know how how to fix my laptop."

...What? How does playing on an xbox equate to knowing the ins and outs of a Toshiba laptop?

 

[TacticalAssassin1]

There should be a "No, they underestimate my ability." option.

 

[Vault101]

I remeber in boarding school I spent alot of time on a computer so people assumed I knew about computer stuff

to be honest all I was doing was reading and building up a huge knowelge of geek stuff and pop culture so I guess I was learnign somthing

 

[Griffolion]

It's not hard to be a 'wizz' at these things to over 40's since they are not as well versed in interacting with technology as we younguns are. Only a small minority can adapt well to modern tech and they are the ones considered to be wiz's back in their day. I've been called to fix a few major things like Windows not acting right to the point where i had to system restore back to a point where it was okay and they thought i was a miracle worker. Other things are smaller such as "why isn't this opening when i double click it" to which i usually respond "well mum, you're not double clicking it quick enough". I am also known to give small bits of advice here and there like "you know mum, you don't have to physically click 'search' with your mouse, just type what you want and press enter..." to which i get back "wow that's amazing, how did you know that!?" *sigh*.

 

[008Zulu_v1legacy]

Alot of my neighbors are old, they get me to do simple things like hookup their dvd players to their tvs. When I get it right the first time (yeah, they are amazed at that) they act as if I have single handedly flown to the moon and back.

I bet there are some people who flew to the moon and back (back in the day) who don't know how to hook their DvD players to their TVs

The irony is delicious.

 

[RedEyesBlackGamer]

Apparently it is really hard for some people to distinguish between "uses computers a lot" and "knows a lot about all things remotely related to computers". So they tend to overestimate my abilities. But then again, a little common sense, coupled with this diagram will often get me pretty far:
image snip
It is basically all I do, but the fact of the matter is that this is already more than a lot of people can do.

Same here. People need to learn that using a computer on a daily basis does not mean that someone is a tech-wizard.

 

[kasperbbs]

Not only old people, but most people i know, it's not that im very good at it, the thing is that they are clueless and a lot of them can`t even read english so they are afraid to push a button when some unknown popup shows up.

 

[intheweeds]

This happens to me a lot. I've been into computers for most of my life and am now in school for programming. IN SCHOOL! as in a 'student'!!! I cannot write your awesome program idea or tell you why your windows is crashing. In fact i know very little. More than the person asking the question maybe, but not enough.

Being a chef i have the same complaint. I am retraining after being a chef for 13 years. Thats another one of those things. Why does everyone assume being a chef means i am some sort of encyclopedia on every dish that has ever been created anywhere in the world ever?! People expect you to be some kind of super-hero. Seriously people, I work in crap conditions and cook food at a very high pace for a lot of people. Its requires years of training at a high level yes, but it's really not as cool or romantic as you may think. Perhaps TV did that.

Usually with a tech question i don't know i fall back on this :

"Computers and software are very complicated and people specialize in certain parts. This is not a part i know anything about. Sorry."

It usually helps.

 

[DustyDrB]

Yes. My parents always thought I was some computer genius. They just think that because they're too stubborn to read what is in front of them when they are using one.

I can read and follow instructions, which can help you a good bit in helping hook up electronics and do the normal things on a computer. However, I have no clue how a computer or TV works. I don't/can't hack. I don't know what good graphics (technically) are, what parts of the computer do what (aside from the obvious things like a keyboard, trackpad, etc), or anything about a computer beyond how to turn it on, play games, browse the web, and manage my iTunes.

 

[bdcjacko]

The other day, my grandma asks me to figure out how to view the pictures on her new digital camera. I don't know anything about cameras, but luckily I have no problems pressing buttons till I find what I want.

Sometimes my grandpa (on the other side of my family) asks me why his email doesn't show up right on outlook or something. And that is when I am lost. I didn't set any of that up, one of my uncles did. And I don't know anything about the routing crap. I just use hotmail.

 

[Slash Dementia]

My family thinks I'm pretty much a superhacker... It's pretty annoying to play tech support when I don't fully understand what I'm doing and have a difficult time reducing terms to their level (that thing that connects from your computer to the box the internet company gave you, it looks like a phone jack).

 

[Goofguy]

Yup, this has happened to me on numerous occasions. I would have liked a 'Yes, I'm good with technology, I just don't know it all' option.

My Mom is kind of technophobic, she panics if anything happens with her computer or TV. She's content to know how to do steps A,B,C but anything outside of that and oh boy, the world is coming to an end. Furthermore, I'm SUPPOSED to know how to fix something if it's wrong and heaven forbid that I need a bit of time to research it on the web because I'm supposed to snap my fingers and have it back to normal instantly.

 

[octafish]

You know it's funny, because I've been using a PC in one way or another for over 20 years my younger siblings and cousins ask me for advice. I can muddle through most things using a combination of trial and error and Google, and what I learn I mostly remember.

 

[Plurralbles]

Yes. My grandma always asks me to come over to help her and yes, 9 out of 10 times I can figure out what's wrong and fix it but that other tenth is completely over my head and it's not even that complicated of a problem. I just don't know enough.

 

[azurawolf]

Oh my mom does it all the time.

She will have a problem and calls me in there to tell me about her problem and then expects me to tell her how to fix it. When I tell her 'I don't know' she looks at me and goes 'Well, your the computer genius'.

It aggravates me all the time. Just because I am a CIS student doesn't mean I know everything.

A friend of mine does that too. I will be all excited about something his computer can do and he tells me I should already know about it because I am a computer student.