Kids today! According to a press release from iiNet, these little upstarts are feigning ignorance when it comes to technology matters so they don’t end up with the unpaid title of resident IT support person.
While the press release is pushing the ISP’s BoBsquad service, it’s the numbers from the Newspoll study it commissioned that are interesting. The study found that 49 per cent of 18-34 year olds are being asked by family and friends for tech support. Of that number, one in three feigns ignorance so they don’t have to spend time setting up nanna’s email client.
I’m of the philosophy that the earlier I help my family and friends, the less work I’ll have to do in the long run. I got extremely frustrated last year when a relative bought a USB wireless Telstra connection for her home internet connection without consulting with me, because now she’s locked in a 24-month contract and can’t connect anything but her laptop to the internet.
While the study has numbers of people who pretenfd to be stupid to avoid working, there’s no explanation of why, other than it can become a “chore”. I’ve never looked at it that way, but then again, I write about technology for a living.
Have you ever pretended to not know something techie that you did know in order to avoid helping family or friends? Why? Let us know below.
jin225
Tuesday, January 17, 2012 at 11:07 AMUsed to work at the genius bar at an Apple store. People would come in asking us to configure their various email accounts from third party providers. This would always end up taking hours so we stopped doing it.
JB
Tuesday, January 17, 2012 at 11:10 AMI find it pretty hard to feign ignorance when I have a degree in computer science. I guess I can only blame myself for that.
tickets
Wednesday, January 18, 2012 at 11:17 AMTIckets anyone? How does this even help the conversation?
You so smart.
Roland
Tuesday, January 17, 2012 at 11:10 AMyoung punks of today are not called “Generation Me” for nothing you know! :) It’s a right of passage helping out family at least… Later on I told my mum don’t tell your friends what I do for a living… as I’d lost my weekends there for a little while…
Keg
Tuesday, January 17, 2012 at 11:15 AMI’ve done it numerous times, mostly because now I know my mother gets herself confused, and then me confused, and then I get yelled at…
Also, no matter how many times I show her something, 5 minutes later she has forgotten it and requires my assistance.
That said, I do still help her from time to time. Last night I set up her MeTV from Optus, and gave her a quick 5 minute rundown on how it works, despite myself having never using one before.
Marty
Tuesday, January 17, 2012 at 11:16 AMall the time, I used to spend countless hours fixing stupidity by neighbors, friends of parents and direct family with no compensation for my time. These days when people ask I say I only deal with servers.
klaw
Tuesday, January 17, 2012 at 11:21 AMI sometimes regret showing an interest in my extended family’s IT issues, because I inevitably get roped into fixing them.
But at least I know they will have less to complain about if they have the right products and services for their needs, and I guess a few brownie points never go astray in the long run. You never know when you might need to call in a favour….
Nick, there are any number of routers which can accept your relative’s 3G USB modem and share it via WiFi or LAN. I have a couple of relatives using the Netcomm N3G005W which can be found cheaply on eBay, and it works quite well.
Nick Broughall
Tuesday, January 17, 2012 at 11:42 AMI know, but a) She doesn’t want to spend any more money and b) I’m still kind of annoyed she did it, so I think I’ll let her finish her contract. She doesn’t really need a WiFi network at the moment anyway, although she will eventually…
wsDK_II
Tuesday, January 17, 2012 at 11:58 AMWhat about sharing the internet through her laptop to the router (no different from ‘share my internet’ connection under network settings for a fixed connection). that way, as long as her router/switch is on, and her laptop, then she can pipe the internet connection to other devices connected to the router.
but she should have just gotten a fixed connection from Telstra if she is not so good with the tech :P
light487
Tuesday, January 17, 2012 at 11:23 AMI’ve done it sure.. but only after I get swamped by that particular person.. so it’s always wise to limit their perception of how much knowledge you have.. it also makes you seem less of a know-it-all and at the same time like you are somehow gifted with an amazing abaility to just work out problems without really knowing anything about them.. :)
If they know you aren’t that much of a techy, tehy can more easily believe you when you say you don’t know anything about how to fix that particular problem.. don’t overwork your techy friends! :)
AshR
Tuesday, January 17, 2012 at 11:23 AMAs for the USB Wireless from telstra, you can always connect it up to a wireless router for around $80- $90.
There are many around atm, you just have to check which is compatible with which USB Dongle/ 3G modem you have.
http://www.jbhifi.com.au/computers/networking/d-link/3g-wireless-router-sku-57810/ is one that’s really good with optus/ vodafone
the one I just recently bought for my mother in law for the Telstra BP3-EXT (the blue external box 3G modem) is http://msy.com.au/product.jsp?productId=2711 and it works 100%. so they now have wireless through out the house.
Parents in law wanted this so they could have their laptop and iPad online when in the lounge-room . (iPad purchase wasn’t my idea either)
Adam
Tuesday, January 17, 2012 at 11:25 AMI always fix up my family computers or phones.
Normally its such a trivial matter I can fix it up in a few minuets.
Chewy
Tuesday, January 17, 2012 at 11:30 AM“Have you tried turning it off and on?”
Stever
Tuesday, January 17, 2012 at 11:25 AMWorking in IT I am always the expert in the house. However I am often amazed at how much non IT people can manage on their own. So often you do not have to rely on the kids at all.
Trogdor
Tuesday, January 17, 2012 at 11:26 AMMost of the people (teens) I know don’t know crap about fixing their computers let alone preventing problems. So I get roped in to fix stuff for free. >.<
Roger Clerik
Tuesday, January 17, 2012 at 11:26 AMIt was really annoying when I was younger but I don’t mind too much anymore, my parents are starting to wrap their heads around it, my father never used to touch them with a 70m pole, he feared he’d break it yet seemed unwilling to try understand it now he can type an email and send it to his family in NZ, he knows how to get to Google and do a search. I’ve just tried to emphasise that to my family, if they don’t understand something – anything, try Google it first.
Stever
Tuesday, January 17, 2012 at 11:27 AMklaw. Who is Nick?
Theophilus
Tuesday, January 17, 2012 at 11:41 AMSeriously ? Did you not read the article ?
beredan
Tuesday, January 17, 2012 at 11:28 AMThe spelling error of “pretenfd” seem appropriate when discussing how to be stupid to to get out of work lol. Anyway I have a golden rule of I will only help friends who I actually interact with. I have got sick and tired of people who only ever talk to me cause they have broken there computer somehow.
Derp
Tuesday, January 17, 2012 at 11:28 AMEverybody does this. I don’t mind giving advice or helping close family and good friends every now and then, but there’s no way I’ll help out someone who I hardly know or only calls me when they need help. This ain’t no charity!
Chewy
Tuesday, January 17, 2012 at 11:29 AMIn my experience, all you have to do is sow the seed that you’re technologically inclined and word spreads. So, it may start with helping mum and dad out setting up their wifi. Soon you get a call from aunt and uncle, immediate family friends, their neighbours and then eventually, there’s no hiding…
Charles
Tuesday, January 17, 2012 at 11:31 AMAh! I used to always get roped into this, I still sort of do. Like being asked over to my parents to setup their surround sound or setup media streaming. It’s rather annoying, but I do it so I can ask for things in return. It’s like give and take.
I can’t feign ignorance cause I’ve been willing to help for to long, but yes, it can be frustrating because people are lazy with technology. They just except the young people to know and fix it for them.
Ray
Tuesday, January 17, 2012 at 11:34 AMI’ve helped friends/family with their computer needs when I can. If I don’t know how to, I’ll try to intuitively find the answer. If everything fails, I truthfully say I can’t fix the problem and they need more expert assistance than I can give.
I’m still looked upon as a “computer-whiz”, even with my limitations.
Salty
Tuesday, January 17, 2012 at 11:36 AMI work in the industry so I find it hard to avoid helping the relle’s, and their friends….and their friends…ect…
I’ve managed to fake it a couple of times though haha, funny enough it was normally with the Telstra Turbo Card setups that I plead ignorant with.
Those things are annoying! Especially when they get locked into the contract and can only get 2G connections.
Grim
Tuesday, January 17, 2012 at 11:42 AMNick, could your neighbour with the USB wifi use internet connect sharing to get other devices on the internet? Granted she’ll need to laptop on, but if she wants other things on the ‘net it should work.
Ray
Tuesday, January 17, 2012 at 11:42 AMBeredan,
It’s interesting you pick up on someone’s typo “pretenfd” but don’t know that “there” should be the possessive “their”. So many people don’t know the difference between “there” (as in “put it over there”, “their” as in “It’s their house”, and “they’re” (contraction of “they are” as in “they’re going on holidays”. Here’s a good example:
“It’s their car they’re moving over there”.
A really annoying mis-statement is “should of”. What is really meant is “should’ve” which is a contraction of “should HAVE”, not “should OF”.
beredan
Tuesday, January 17, 2012 at 1:49 PMCalm your farm ray. I was making the point as a joke due to the fact that this is there job to write articles and his miss spelled it in the same sentence about pretending to be dumb. I just found this amusing. :)
Simon
Tuesday, January 17, 2012 at 11:59 PMtrolololo lo lolo lololo!
Zanza
Tuesday, January 17, 2012 at 11:45 AMI tend to be treated by my family, my partners family, and both of our friends as your local support guy. I get frustrated being constantly asked for help and having to fix things that they have broken in one way or another. Makes it harder when you do support for a living and have to come home to do more.
But I wonder… would we be jealous if they asked someone else?
Tristan
Tuesday, January 17, 2012 at 11:55 AMWhen I first read your comment, I thought to myself ‘only has 2 friends?’
Zanza
Tuesday, January 17, 2012 at 12:04 PMLOL
Philip B
Tuesday, January 17, 2012 at 11:58 AM“jealous” is perhaps a little strong, but sometimes yes. I get annoyed when a friend asks someone ELSE about, for example, “what computer should I buy?” because I know that they’ll probably go out and buy the wrong thing and I’ll have to spend the next 2 years looking after some piece of crap that they shouldn’t have bought in the first place
Blake
Tuesday, January 17, 2012 at 11:57 AMI don’t mind helping.
I do have an issue where it is quite obvious they have not tried to solve the issue themselves. Or even read what the error is since it explicitly explains the solution.
cleverclogs
Tuesday, January 17, 2012 at 12:02 PMI had to fix up someone’s ANCIENT laptop (I mean, painfully ancient 10 year old lappy). Everything was running as smoothly as it could. Spent hours on it. A month later they phone up asking how to activate a piece of software…. turns out they had gone and bought a new laptop…. what a waste of f-ing time.
lolwut
Tuesday, January 17, 2012 at 12:04 PMi ONLY help family…never bothered helping friends
because a family is a family anyway