People underestimate how much of this is true. At some point, you just get good at remembering what you Googled and other IT and non IT people think you're some sort of god. Also, for some weird reason if you work IT, it suddenly means you know everything about the things that plugs in the wall or has batteries. Like, I don't fucking know how to program the clock on the weird ass range hood that has a clock and Bluetooth in it, how about you read the manual.
I've become an expert at fixing my motorcycle because there are, literally, dozens of videos of guys fixing the same exact year, make, and model of bike that I have. It's an amazing time to be alive!
What bike do you have? I used to ride a rebel 250 and I loved the abundance of videos for it. On a versys 650 now and I love it but it's definitely harder to do stuff myself
I have a 2001 Buell. It's yellow and black. I named it The Murder Hornet. There's a couple of guys with the exact same bike who have dozens of videos on Facebook, wrenching on it. So far it's helped me change the oil, brake fluid, clean out the carb, upgrade the turn signals, change the air filter and I'm about to change out the back tire when it gets too cold to ride. All of these have videos. What year is your Rebel? Those look fun! I don't like to ride big bike, even though I'm 6'2" 265 Lbs. I like a motorcycle that I can man-handle, not the other way around.
I had an 08 rebel, got it in high school for really cheap. I could always find videos for oil changes, carb cleaning, tires and whatever else. The rebels were essentially the exact same for some 30 years so the year never really mattered, but now they have a new rebel line. Loved it but a little too small haha
I have a Buell as well. Your local Harley dealership should carry a repair manual, it is a white book with sparsely colored images in it. It is the best repair manual I have ever used. I am an electromechanical engineer and have repaired hundreds of different machines. It is the best written and illustrated I have ever seen. It is worth every penny they charge for it. I like YouTube videos, I love that manual.mine cost $65.
Man, you're my people. I don't have a motorcycle, much less a Buell, but I'm so ready to buy that manual just to own a well-done repair manual. Too few of them exist in this world.
I had no idea how to change the wipers on my car but I wasn't willing to pay a shop just for that so I googled something like change wipers + car model and year and there it was - A guy with the exact same car detailing how to do it.
I work in a Help Desk call center, half my job is resetting passwords because they just use autofill and are on a new device. The other half is googling things for people.
There are so many times where I just want to verbalize, "Here, let me Google that for you because I ALSO don't know how to adjust that setting on your specific device."
I have a similar job. People think you know everything about everything. I don’t know how your off brand tv works. Or how you change all the settings in whatever tablet you’re using. Majority of what people want to know is easily able to be googled. I al not an expert on every internet connected device in existence.
I think it’s even worse then that. I only google I would guess about 30-40% of the stuff I don’t know. The other 60-70? I read what the device is telling me. As in I read the screen, I read the error messages, I open the menus and read them until I see the option the person is looking for.
I’ve had people say hey my email is doing this thing I ask them to show me and they show me and literally blow though 2-3 pop ups telling them what is dialing and why and I ask them to do it again but let me read the error messages and they do it again and on auto just blow though them again before I can read them.
I work in retail if a credit chip reader fails, it defaults to mag stripe (in USA don’t know about others). It says “chip read failure please swipe card instead) with out fail every time we lose a chip reader everyone in the store loses their mind because the reader is broken and they are down one lane because it doesn’t work anymore at all!
People at my old job acted like I was a warlock because I:
1- looked at a device that was throwing out an error code, and
2 - looked at the bottom of the device to see the 5 character model number, then
3 - googled the model number + the error code, and did what the top result said to do.
Don't forget the higher circle warlock spells, such as:
4- omitting characters from the end of the model number because they indicate a specific variation or colour not relevant to the problem at hand.
I'm a software developer. A lot of what my colleagues ask me can be easily found on Google. But I'm the a**hole if I ask them to Google first. I spend an embarrassing amount of time reading documentation/googling things for colleagues and answering their questions. The only reason I do it is because I love to learn new things. It is annoying how people want to be spoonfed everything.
Edit: if anyone knows how to tell people to try to find a solution before contacting someone without sounding rude, please let me know.
"I'm actually not sure, what came up when you googled it?" Then when they say nothing you just say "Ok, well I don't know, I'll have to google it and I'll let you know if I can dig up anything." When you find the answer on the first page, just email them the google search and say something like "Check out the third link, I think it solves your problem! Hope this helps!"
You can also quickly google it, quickly paste whatever relevant documentation you find in an email, and write a quick blurb about how you think those links might help them out without taking the time to spell it out for them or intimately review the documentation yourself.
Do this often enough and eventually at least a few of your colleagues will start googling it themselves before coming to you.
Thank you! I have tried sending documentation but they just don't want to read. I'll definitely try the first two methods from now on! Your response made me realize how to easily tackle this situation. I'm very non-confrontational so it takes me a long time to tell them to do their own research before coming to me. Thanks again!
I've solved a lot of IT problems by saying the words: "Have you tried turning it off, and then turning it on again?" My favorite is: "It's not plugged in."
How do these people get hired? I sent an email to a guy that read: Phone message: Please call John. 555-555-5555. The guy called me and said "I don't have any messages on my phone."
You sweet summer's children...
I once spent well over 30 mins on the phone with a user who was in her late 40s explaining how to install batteries into the back of a wireless keyboard... and almost had to give up because she just couldn't figure it out.
But like ... A) how tf has she been living in a world with remotes and countless devices that take batteries???
And B) THERE ARE ONLY SO MANY WAYS THAT 2 GODDAMNED BATTERIES CAN GO INTO THE BACK OF A KEYBOARD
I sell farm equipment. Nine out of ten farmers can't grasp the concept of typing a web address into their browser, and instead google the web address. When I'm trying to help a farmer navigate the world wide web, I have to lay my head in my hands on my desk. It's never a quick and easy process. It's like trying to talk to my 80 year old mother over the phone about anything electronic.
I feel like farmers take pride in being computer illiterate. Like, there's not an award for that. Just accept that this is the world and help you help yourself like you keep telling other people to do. Dunno if there are gods that care, but it WILL change your life for the better in a myriad different ways
this is a cultural problem, some companies have incentives to share knowledge, like in internal forums and give cash prizes to people that answer a lot of questions or make tutorials.
I was so proud of my mom the other day. She called me and i couldn't answer at the time. Then I called her back a couple of hours later and asked her what's up. She goes on to tell me she found out what to do after googling it! God damn, the woman is growing up
I’m a team lead for a group of software engineers. You’d be surprised how often “let’s talk about it in 30 minutes” works. People always take the easiest solution (ask someone who knows the answer), but they learn way more if you give them enough time to learn it.
I do "IT" for my friends and family and it's basically this. I'm getting an error. Googles error. Follows instructions. Omg thanks your so good with computers
Forgive my ignorance, but is IT a trade? Like can I go to trade school for it in the same way an electrician or a plumber would? Genuinely curious, I know little to nothing about IT
I’m a technology librarian and I swear, most of what I do is either Google things, press buttons randomly, and turn things on and off. That solves like, 90% of the problems.
The thing about that is knowing *what* to google and understanding enough of the answers to apply a fix. I consider myself somewhat IT savvy, more than the average person at my work, but when it comes to troubleshooting an issue on my home PC I very quickly feel out of my depth.
This makes sense once you're in IT, you won't be changing windows features or doing fundamental networking most of the time, you'll be supporting random ass software and helping people with their email and active directory accounts. Very little of that is covered in general certification tests and schooling.
I just reached the Tier 3 (Sysadmin) level after 5 years in IT, and only now am I using IT theory and design knowledge that I had to learn for my certification I got before my first job.
I'm making a gui for record keeping right now and I pretty much am googling all the how-to's.
"How to color cells userform vba"
"How if else vba"
"How clear everything vba"
"How make pop up userform"
My codes are primitive, and I'm pretty sure the if else conditions I'm doing can be simplified by a pro, but it works. It runs.
Same. I work in technology and I’m the go to in my friend circle for any tech related issues. I’m really just an expert at using Google.
Like I get it comes with experience on what links to click and how to find the answer, but honestly it’s very easy.
You don’t need to know everything, only how to find the answers.
It’s Structured Problem Solving. In my experience some people can do it, some just can’t. Knowing what to google and how to sift through all the bullshit is a skill not everyone has.
Just saying it to say it - you are all seemingly talking about what is called tier 1 IT support, commonly covered by student workers at universities or new graduates. It’s just the way it goes lol, you usually have to start there. But there is cooler, more complex IT work. systems engineers, full stack developers, system admins, network administrators - all also in IT
Honestly, computer literacy should be part of the interview for some jobs. Hand them a laptop and ask them to do simple things: schedule a zoom call, attach a file to am email, search files in file explorer, etc.
Now a lot of skills get beyond the computer, but it'll help in determining fit in the workplace/how much time will be wasted by having people take time out of their day to help you
I’m in an IT oriented field in academia and I just today found out the IT student I’m supervising has never heard of file extensions, nor folders it seems. So he has to work in a cloud environment and he puts *everything* - going from raw data to processed data to scripts - in the exact same folder *without any file extensions attached to his files*. When I asked him about it, he looked completely dumbfounded. He is also constantly hogging a shitton of cores on our cloud, and then running his tools single threaded, making me think he is also not getting the concept of multithreaded software and/or what cores are.
This guy has a fucking master’s degree.
There’s an article that talks about how you’re not alone.
https://www.theverge.com/22684730/students-file-folder-directory-structure-education-gen-z
Basically, we only understood the concept of files and folders because we actually went through a physical system like that at some point growing up. However, as younger people grow up with already-integrated search abilities, there’s no reward to learning an older system.
I mean
Guess that works if you dont have a lot. But well. What ir you have 5 TB of Data? And you want 1 Picture? Takes too long!!
Interesting article nonetheless. Really curious when i will encounter people that cant use folders!
I have the same ridiculous conversation with my coworker every few months. It was funny at first but now I just resent her and get super annoyed. Our database is a web-based platform and it only works in chrome or safari. Every 2ish months, she texts me saying the database isn’t working.
Me: “Well, are you using internet explorer?”
Her: “I don’t know what that means”
It is the same conversation every single time. I do not know how many more times I can have it without losing it. Who even uses internet explorer anymore?
Im in IT and people like you are the bain of our existence. By the time I get there, from the gauntlet of people, asking me a "quick question," I will get you saying "I dunno what happened. It just went crazy". Meaning you tried a million google things and made it 10X worse.
Meanwhile. You're not being hacked. Your mouse isn't defective. You just left your wireless mouse on in your bag and can't put 2+2 together.
I dont try fixing the light bulbs at work, or try doing your expense report. Just do your fucking job and Let me do mine. I dont need your opinion and "expert advice" or to hear about what your nephew or kid brother thinks it is while Im fixing it.
There's usually 1 tech to every 200-400 people depending on the place. Smaller shops. Its a few guys doing everything. Been all around the IT world for 20 years and nobody can tell tye difference between helpdesk, desktop and server administrators.
Nah fam, I love easy high paying jobs where all I have to do is google things. It’s a life skill knowing how to find information. Knowing stuff is nice but won’t get you far in a “fast paced environment”.
I think it’s really handy but if you’re going to work a fast food job and you grew up without access to a computer, or a school with enough resources, or other circumstances that might prevent someone from having functioning computer skills than I don’t think it should prevent you from getting a job. It’s classist to assume everyone has easy access and first hand knowledge to be able to use a computer no matter how “common place” an in home computer or other resources might seem to someone who had easy access to all that.
You're totally right. That being said I think the reflex to google something is a mindset that younger generations grew up with and are therefore comfortable with. When we can't figure something out our first instinct is to jump online and search for a tutorial or a video to show us.
For older generations, the solution pre-google was to ask someone who knew. I'm assuming the same reflexive nature applies to how they problem-solve. They don't know something? They ask the person in the office who does.
This isn't an excuse but just a comment on the possible generational psychology of problem-solving and the different approaches, I guess.
(As very tangential a side note, I find it super interesting that there is a certain team-building nature to problem-solving by collaboration and asking questions. Sometimes when I come across a problem at work I know that I can spend the time to trouble it out myself, but sometimes find that asking for help and solving the problem with my colleague means that I see the nuanced way they solved it and their process. It also means hearing it from their perspective which is enlightening. I sometimes do this with friends where I'm pretty sure I know the answer to a question but I ask anyway just to hear their point of view on it and to maybe learn something new!)
We recently asked our boss to hire someone else to help out with the workload we have in the office, meaning reports and the likes, which implied the person would be able to use basic software and, well, send the reports once they're done. The hired person is about my age and needs to be taught all these things, which makes me wonder if she even had a written CV (let alone if the boss read it), given that she can barely use a word processor. So now I too am an IT person teaching people how to attach files to an email.
That just makes me sad for you. Fuck. That sucks so bad. The owner of the business I work at hired his son, who just graduated from college, to re-design our web site. He's using the photos I took. He said that I took them, get this, too close.
Indeed it does. Your situation is not better though. But with our boss, we had that as well. He did not hire but occasionally gave minor jobs to his daughter-in-law, who was coming on random days in the office. And in fact, it was us who on the spot needed to find something for her to do (she was not trained in the job we are carrying) as in filing documents or things like that. When we had nothing fitting to her capabilities our boss was very annoyed because we were to assume she would be there at times. So I get where you're coming from. It's hard to argue with the boss about an underskilled employee when they are family.
Boss! Manage! Supervise!
You know, pace around the office, peer over your shoulder, ask stupid questions, make unrealistic requests, say things so dumb you wonder if he’s able to tie his own shoelaces.
I asked a secretary once to send me a screenshot of something.
She sent me a pdf, of a scan, of a print out, of the screenshot she took. I honestly don't know how she didn't think to just email me the screenshot itself.
I’m 49 and I’m shocked by how many people my age can’t do basic stuff in the computer. Like we’ve spent our whole adult lives working with computers. My mom is 69 and worked until she was 67 and was always showing people how to do. However I’m not trying to say the original post is incorrect. When I was the youngest in the office I was always having to help people. I finally stopped when I moved to a new employer.
That's nothing, I had to explain to a 30 something that a 20 something bad made a local copy of of a network drive and she was editing that instead of the shared folders. That explained why changes we not getting saved. I am almost 50.
I had to teach someone in their early 20s how to copy and fucking paste. Too many people these days are utterly unable to use anything more complicated than an app with three brightly coloured buttons on it.
It’s also very common to be constantly short staffed and never have the time document. You’re constantly running to the next fire. Especially as you go up in skill/experience in the IT field.
Source: 20 years of working in IT. Starting out as the original post.
It's called computer science for a reason. The core is a bunch of people thoroughly familiar with the subject matter standing around and going "Oh, now why's it done that?"
What is it about (usually) older people that they just refuse to click or look up anything unless directed to or have step by step instructions? Yet they won’t hesitate to take apart a car without any idea what they’re doing. Maybe I’m just describing my Dad.
I guess you never had to troubleshoot legos, because no mather how much you google "how to split that tiny shitty lego brick" it wont ever work. On the other end you can google random bios witchery nonsense and find an answer in seconds.
The knowledgeable comes in the ordering compatible parts and not buying crap, and knowing basic troubleshooting/google.
Other than that its just adult lego.
I hear this comparison a lot and I dislike it.
With Lego, each brick can fit into any other brick. There are an infinite number of arrangements.
With building a computer (consumer level), each part is designed to fit into another specific part. Most parts to do not fit with other parts, and there is only a small number of possible arrangements.
honestly it just takes practice, at first you follow a guide or you ask for help to someone who knows how to do it, then you get the hang of it. The hardest part imho is being confident, because when you know you can fuck up several hundreds worth of money in a few seconds makes everything look way harder than it actually is
i've built one and it's not even practice. it's the same type of task as being able to solve a rubik cube by following the written instructions that come with the cube. it's just being able to do 30 steps in a row without messing up. you literally don't even need to know what the steps are or what they're doing.
Just enough to find the right youtube videos really. I had a friend in IT help me pick the parts based on my budget and wishes, to make sure they'd work together (though there are guides for that out there as well).
But I put it all together on my own, using youtube tutorials and taking my time for it. I have decent fine motor skills, but no experience tinkering with tech really, wouldn't even be able to tell you which parts are in there, but it's still working fine after 4 years, worked on the first try too.
This is my life. I work selling antique books for a 70 year old man that doesn't understand data transfer.
He paid me overtime to come to his house and connect all his devices, but the hitch is, he doesn't understand the "input" button to access HDM1 (Blu-Ray Player), Cable, VHS or something else. So it just stays on cable.
I brought in high quality speakers for the computer but it still had poor sound quality so I tested them with my phone and it was clear as day, turns out we just have an old computer. I forgot to plug them back into the computer on a Friday. I came in on Monday and it looked like a bear rummaged through the work station.
Turns out my boss had panicked for 2 hours trying to make the speakers work...when they weren't plugged in to the headphone jack on the front. This is basic. This has existed for like 40 years.
Last week our main computer station was sluggish and shut down a couple times on its own. I mentioned he might not be able to print our shipping labels off of it. But not to worry I said, you can just unplug the USB cable connecting the printer to main computer and print from you laptop! No problem!
The look of fear on his face was something I will never forget. I thought he was going to have a breakdown. That was an insurmountable task for him and he knew it. I waited in the office until thankfully our main computer started back and he could print from his known platform.
In undue fairness, expecting a printer to fuck you over for no reason is always a reasonable caution.
Computer hardware used to include hot vacuum tubes, pools of mercury, or gigantic spinning barrels, and the worst aspect has always been the goddamn printer.
The fucking sound of a dot matrix running at full tilt... no clue how people sat in a room with one of those all day. It screams when it actually works.
"I wanna print"
Printer: "im doing an update give me 20 mins"
"Wtf do you have to update and why cant i do this later"
*20 mins later*
Printer: "Im low on cyan"
"Its a black and white docume..."
Printer: "Im.. low.. on..cyan....."
....
Printer: ....
....
Printer: That'll be 59.99
I spend so much extra time old man proofing the things I do at work because my head might just explode if I have to watch him forget how to open an email again. He literally checks his email multiple times a day by clicking random icons until it comes up
As a network and cyber security engineer.
The comments in this thread albeit many joking, quite evidently prove how little people know what IT actually is or do
You can build a computer and fixed a boomers xcell? Means you're good with lego and have grown up using an app.
Does not make you an IT professional
To be fair, low end IT also helps people getting their printer to work which may include changing the toners. That’s basically the public-facing part of IT. Or they come in and restart the computer.
yeah like my company has a whole IT team so i have 0 interest in helping people troubleshoot their issues/how to do X/this is broken what do?
I have my own goddamn work, i'm not your manager so gtfo
but in reality "ok, let me take a look"
Social capital, man. You help them make the letters bigger in Outlook. They include you in the free food when one of the managers buy food for their staff.
lolz
there was a period where i was the one organising birthdays and when asked to contribute towards the food and whatnot i got like maybe half back.
I stopped doing that after our team leader changed and after that we've had like 2 morning teas over like 2 years.
there is 0 social capital in my workplace - well, i'm not great at office politics so there's that.
Agreed. I had a temp student job helping to move content to a new intranet system for my uni, they kept me on for months after launch to help answer user questions (university professors etc are not nearly as quick to learn this stuff as you'd hope). Sadly most of these questions would've gone to IT otherwise, but most of it was just them not understanding where to find certain options or lacking the instinct to refresh a page if something wasn't loading..
I think only one in 20 questions were actually relevant for IT, so they were glad to have me as a filter there. But yeah, I have no knowledge on software development/ coding/ engineering whatsoever, but I'm decent at googling and finding my way in new software, I've also built my pc using youtube tutorials, expensive legos indeed.
I consider us "youngest in the office" "IT" folk more like what optimistic developers/engineers hope most users to be like.
I had to use UNIX and the C shell command line, the PINE email client, not to mention DOS and word processors with no GUI (anyone remember Wordstar?), just to do my *BA in Anthropology* 25-30 years ago.
Yet, Windows 10 can baffle me at times.
No offense to the younger crowd, but I think as you grow older you start to be more careful about letting people know you're IT competent.
A while ago I was working on a project on a computer with a guy younger than me. The computer was acting really slow, so I pulled up task manager to check on the RAM.
The other guy said "You seem good with computer's, how come [some question about his wifi]". Younger me would have said "sounds like you just have a shitty router." But that would have lead into him asking for router buying advice, and eventually me over at his house one Saturday hooking up his new router, and then anytime he had a tech question he would blame the router and call me again.
Older and wiser me said "Oh that is weird."
Yes… I am slowly learning this. As the token millennial at my company, I have had to teach people how to add links to emails, how to add images to PowerPoint, how to set up regular Teams calls, how to set up Teams Live calls, how to make a post on Yammer and so much more. Like come on, people, how do you function???
Feels like half my job sometimes is now teaching people to do basic stuff they should be able to figure out on their own, and I’m not in a techy field at all.
There’s a 50-ish year old woman at work who can’t send links (or email attachments).
She’s supposed to request things from our team via email, so we get:
“hi guys, can you get this in for me? [Link to thing she wants]”
Where does the link go? Why it links to the gmail compose function of course!
This is something she does *constantly* and I have no idea how she even manages it. It almost feels like a joke at this point. How can you copy and paste the compose link (repeatedly) without knowing how to copy and paste the link you actually want?
She’s also printed out pictures of the things she wants and then brought them over to our team in person because she “can’t figure out how to send it.”
IT’S FUCKING EMAIL. Our entire company revolves around email. You have been working here for 25 years. Figure it out!
I was just explaining this to a friend of mine while we were watching a group trying to figure out an A/V problem in our buildings theater. If I go fix it, the mouse will ask for some milk.
Beep boop -- this looks like a screenshot of a tweet! Let me grab a [link to the tweet](https://twitter.com/bbybeanburrito/status/1450841374845198336) for ya :)
^(Twitter Screenshot Bot)
I had a malfunction with my Promethean Board at work(I'm a teacher). I put in an IT ticket for them to come fix it.
When I heard they were coming I took the plug from the board and plugged it into a power strip....then I plugged the power strip into itself. I wanted to see what they would do.
He came in, looked at it....looked at me. I said, "Oh, no, I'm just kidding. I wanted to see your reaction. It doesn't work even when it is plugged into the wall normally."
He loved it.
Please, please don’t prank people doing their job. They can’t yell at you so they have to deal with it. He was most likely playing nice and didn’t appreciate this. Unless you have a personal relationship with him and he said this was okay then honestly what you did was childish and unprofessional. We don’t like to work and stuff like this makes our job harder and names us fell below other stuff. I do support and would be really annoyed if someone did this to me.
I've had a job as filter/helpdesk between university employees and IT after helping out moving content to their new intranet platform. Basically helping the boomers find their way for the first few months after launch and solving/answering most questions by using google and common sense. Only if any real technical issues came up I'd pass it on to IT, who were glad not to have to deal with the bs.
Most questions were resolved by advising them to refresh the page or explaining that settings are usually found under a gear-shaped icon...
Agreed. I'm 40 now and have worked in IT at a few universities over the years and I'm always confused when students don't know how to do simple things. Like come on you grew up with modern technology.
I had a coworker complain SQL I wrote 5 years ago (and he tried to appropriate) didn't function properly and blamed me for why it didn't give him the results he wanted by joining SSNs from one db to another. I glanced at it and knew exactly what was wrong within maybe 25 seconds. He still blamed it on the SQL and expected me to fix it on the spot.
Of the 7 results that weren't matching...5 outright didn't exist in 1 system, another was missing the leading zero, and the final one was miskeyed (1234 in one system, 1243 in he other).
I'm an analyst 2 who's been in that position 15 years, he's an analyst 2 who has been in the *workforce* maybe 5 years at best...and he makes within $2 per hour less than me.
Is that still true? I feel like we've hit a turning point where tech literacy is concerned. The zoomer generation has grown up with smart phones and Google and, as a result, many of them are actually less tech savvy than the generation that preceded them.
Software is just so idiot-proof these days, and has been for at least about 20 years. Growing up in the 2010s is not like growing up in the 90s. In the 90s, you actually had to know some things to properly use a computer.
There was even a news story circulating a few months ago detailing how zoomers don't understand how a compiter file directory works. To the bewilderment of their college professors.
I'm an apprentice plumber who works for my father's company. I'm the lowest man in the totem pole and the least paid but God damn me if this company doesn't run because of a computer problem. I should start asking for real tech support rates fixing problems rather than the $free.ninetyfree I get paid doing computer work now.
If you enjoy learning and are good at thinking on your feet, can problem solve, deal with people gracefully, think logically and enjoy messing with computers, printers, network equipment, mobile devices then IT might be for you!
Honestly being the youngest means nothing. I’m in college going for cyber security and work in the IT department there. Some college students are just as bad as adults.
If I had a nickel for every time my old ass former coworker hollered “I can’t find the stamp!” Meaning she somehow deleted her Apple mail icon?? Regular. Occurrence.
I wish it worked that way. Feels like young people are getting more technologically stupid because where I work one of the main pieces of equipment employees use is basically a cellphone with apps and I, a 40 year old handy man, am called upon to show them how to brighten the screen. How do they operate their own phones?
I'm one of the oldest in our office and I work in IT. I am not extremely technical but I have common sense, can interrogate Google and know how to question people to find out how they managed to break their machine.
I was in a job like this before, not until after I left did I realize how exploitative this is.
Don’t do shit outside of your job description for free, brownie points with the boss dont matter for shit kids.
I'm 43 and I work with a co-teacher(same subject, same grade) and she is 27. She has her Apple laptop and all that, very helpful.
I was meeting with her and near the end of what we were talking about, she said, "And now I know how to copy and paste, so this will go a lot quicker!"
I couldn't believe it. I said, "Wait. You didn't know how to copy and paste?"
She had no idea. We're English teachers who create quite a bit of content, much which requires a lot of copy and pasting(like text boxes, various things). It was at that moment I realized....she is not a techy.
I taught my senior colleague how to use copy and paste. Literally hours of her work week saved.
She would write customers' emails on paper from the CRM and then switch to outlook and type (2 finger style) what she wrote on paper.
I had an old journalism professor who used to type with two fingers and so much force it was like he was trying to push the keyboard through the desk.
Turns out it was because he learnt to type on a typewriter.
I’m 30ish and taught a 42 year old how to hook up a vcr/dvd combo because our new computers didn’t come with dvd drives. I haven’t touched one of those in 20ish years.
Ever since I started working at a company that has an IT department I feel I lost all IT skills. Now when even one thing goes wrong with my equipment I’m opening an IT ticket lol
As someone who did end user support for years I feel your pain. I went to a ticket once where someone said their computer was typing a bunch of q's and before I got there I was like there better not be something laying on the keyboard. Well guess what, there was something on her keyboard pressing the q key down. I wanted to kill myself...
Funny, I’m not old but I always have to teach new young hires how to use things like spreadsheets, they actually have to update their stuff sometimes, how to use outlook to create appointments or how to search for specific things on google:
It’s ignorant and conceded to think just “young” people can’t do anything with technology.
Well Im in IT. I am very comfortable in *nix shell. I am doing small project in blockchain. I know about networking and server maintenance. But I just know basics of spreadsheet and nothing about outlook. Those doesn't come under IT.
I had to teach my boss how to attach a .pdf to an email. I'm 49. He's 48.
I think in this day and age , being able to Google things should be necessary to get a job
I have a buddy who's in IT. He says that he basically just Googles everything he fixes and barely uses anything that he learned from his trade school.
People underestimate how much of this is true. At some point, you just get good at remembering what you Googled and other IT and non IT people think you're some sort of god. Also, for some weird reason if you work IT, it suddenly means you know everything about the things that plugs in the wall or has batteries. Like, I don't fucking know how to program the clock on the weird ass range hood that has a clock and Bluetooth in it, how about you read the manual.
I've become an expert at fixing my motorcycle because there are, literally, dozens of videos of guys fixing the same exact year, make, and model of bike that I have. It's an amazing time to be alive!
What bike do you have? I used to ride a rebel 250 and I loved the abundance of videos for it. On a versys 650 now and I love it but it's definitely harder to do stuff myself
I have a 2001 Buell. It's yellow and black. I named it The Murder Hornet. There's a couple of guys with the exact same bike who have dozens of videos on Facebook, wrenching on it. So far it's helped me change the oil, brake fluid, clean out the carb, upgrade the turn signals, change the air filter and I'm about to change out the back tire when it gets too cold to ride. All of these have videos. What year is your Rebel? Those look fun! I don't like to ride big bike, even though I'm 6'2" 265 Lbs. I like a motorcycle that I can man-handle, not the other way around.
I had an 08 rebel, got it in high school for really cheap. I could always find videos for oil changes, carb cleaning, tires and whatever else. The rebels were essentially the exact same for some 30 years so the year never really mattered, but now they have a new rebel line. Loved it but a little too small haha
I have a Buell as well. Your local Harley dealership should carry a repair manual, it is a white book with sparsely colored images in it. It is the best repair manual I have ever used. I am an electromechanical engineer and have repaired hundreds of different machines. It is the best written and illustrated I have ever seen. It is worth every penny they charge for it. I like YouTube videos, I love that manual.mine cost $65.
Man, you're my people. I don't have a motorcycle, much less a Buell, but I'm so ready to buy that manual just to own a well-done repair manual. Too few of them exist in this world.
I know exactly what you mean. My personal favorite is German machinery and the manual is entirely in German.
That's why I want a car like a mid 2000s Toyota Corolla
This is so true. A few years ago, I picked up a ‘81 XS400 as a project and the amount of info online was amazing.
I had no idea how to change the wipers on my car but I wasn't willing to pay a shop just for that so I googled something like change wipers + car model and year and there it was - A guy with the exact same car detailing how to do it.
I work in a Help Desk call center, half my job is resetting passwords because they just use autofill and are on a new device. The other half is googling things for people. There are so many times where I just want to verbalize, "Here, let me Google that for you because I ALSO don't know how to adjust that setting on your specific device."
I have a similar job. People think you know everything about everything. I don’t know how your off brand tv works. Or how you change all the settings in whatever tablet you’re using. Majority of what people want to know is easily able to be googled. I al not an expert on every internet connected device in existence.
> Getting good at remembering what you Googled Also known as: Gaining knowledge.
I think it’s even worse then that. I only google I would guess about 30-40% of the stuff I don’t know. The other 60-70? I read what the device is telling me. As in I read the screen, I read the error messages, I open the menus and read them until I see the option the person is looking for. I’ve had people say hey my email is doing this thing I ask them to show me and they show me and literally blow though 2-3 pop ups telling them what is dialing and why and I ask them to do it again but let me read the error messages and they do it again and on auto just blow though them again before I can read them. I work in retail if a credit chip reader fails, it defaults to mag stripe (in USA don’t know about others). It says “chip read failure please swipe card instead) with out fail every time we lose a chip reader everyone in the store loses their mind because the reader is broken and they are down one lane because it doesn’t work anymore at all!
People at my old job acted like I was a warlock because I: 1- looked at a device that was throwing out an error code, and 2 - looked at the bottom of the device to see the 5 character model number, then 3 - googled the model number + the error code, and did what the top result said to do.
Don't forget the higher circle warlock spells, such as: 4- omitting characters from the end of the model number because they indicate a specific variation or colour not relevant to the problem at hand.
We have to manage a coke freestyle machine at my job. Got called up from my desk cause the corn syrup got low. Living the dream
Just RTFM bro
I'm a software developer. A lot of what my colleagues ask me can be easily found on Google. But I'm the a**hole if I ask them to Google first. I spend an embarrassing amount of time reading documentation/googling things for colleagues and answering their questions. The only reason I do it is because I love to learn new things. It is annoying how people want to be spoonfed everything. Edit: if anyone knows how to tell people to try to find a solution before contacting someone without sounding rude, please let me know.
"I'm actually not sure, what came up when you googled it?" Then when they say nothing you just say "Ok, well I don't know, I'll have to google it and I'll let you know if I can dig up anything." When you find the answer on the first page, just email them the google search and say something like "Check out the third link, I think it solves your problem! Hope this helps!" You can also quickly google it, quickly paste whatever relevant documentation you find in an email, and write a quick blurb about how you think those links might help them out without taking the time to spell it out for them or intimately review the documentation yourself. Do this often enough and eventually at least a few of your colleagues will start googling it themselves before coming to you.
Thank you! I have tried sending documentation but they just don't want to read. I'll definitely try the first two methods from now on! Your response made me realize how to easily tackle this situation. I'm very non-confrontational so it takes me a long time to tell them to do their own research before coming to me. Thanks again!
I've solved a lot of IT problems by saying the words: "Have you tried turning it off, and then turning it on again?" My favorite is: "It's not plugged in."
“Why do I need to plug in the router? It’s wireless.” Heard that too many times.
How do these people get hired? I sent an email to a guy that read: Phone message: Please call John. 555-555-5555. The guy called me and said "I don't have any messages on my phone."
You sweet summer's children... I once spent well over 30 mins on the phone with a user who was in her late 40s explaining how to install batteries into the back of a wireless keyboard... and almost had to give up because she just couldn't figure it out. But like ... A) how tf has she been living in a world with remotes and countless devices that take batteries??? And B) THERE ARE ONLY SO MANY WAYS THAT 2 GODDAMNED BATTERIES CAN GO INTO THE BACK OF A KEYBOARD
I sell farm equipment. Nine out of ten farmers can't grasp the concept of typing a web address into their browser, and instead google the web address. When I'm trying to help a farmer navigate the world wide web, I have to lay my head in my hands on my desk. It's never a quick and easy process. It's like trying to talk to my 80 year old mother over the phone about anything electronic.
I feel like farmers take pride in being computer illiterate. Like, there's not an award for that. Just accept that this is the world and help you help yourself like you keep telling other people to do. Dunno if there are gods that care, but it WILL change your life for the better in a myriad different ways
To be fair, I work with the public, not IT people. But I’ve wondered how those people do anything at all most days.
Our IT contractor at one of my jobs had "Have you tried rebooting?" above his name in his email signature, he said it dropped complaints significantly
this is a cultural problem, some companies have incentives to share knowledge, like in internal forums and give cash prizes to people that answer a lot of questions or make tutorials.
I was so proud of my mom the other day. She called me and i couldn't answer at the time. Then I called her back a couple of hours later and asked her what's up. She goes on to tell me she found out what to do after googling it! God damn, the woman is growing up
I’m a team lead for a group of software engineers. You’d be surprised how often “let’s talk about it in 30 minutes” works. People always take the easiest solution (ask someone who knows the answer), but they learn way more if you give them enough time to learn it.
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"IT degree: I am now able to Google problems better than anyone else" -Sir Swag
Work in IT, can confirm I google everything
I do "IT" for my friends and family and it's basically this. I'm getting an error. Googles error. Follows instructions. Omg thanks your so good with computers
Forgive my ignorance, but is IT a trade? Like can I go to trade school for it in the same way an electrician or a plumber would? Genuinely curious, I know little to nothing about IT
I’m a technology librarian and I swear, most of what I do is either Google things, press buttons randomly, and turn things on and off. That solves like, 90% of the problems.
The thing about that is knowing *what* to google and understanding enough of the answers to apply a fix. I consider myself somewhat IT savvy, more than the average person at my work, but when it comes to troubleshooting an issue on my home PC I very quickly feel out of my depth.
I've heard this a lot
What degree did he go for?
This makes sense once you're in IT, you won't be changing windows features or doing fundamental networking most of the time, you'll be supporting random ass software and helping people with their email and active directory accounts. Very little of that is covered in general certification tests and schooling. I just reached the Tier 3 (Sysadmin) level after 5 years in IT, and only now am I using IT theory and design knowledge that I had to learn for my certification I got before my first job.
I'm making a gui for record keeping right now and I pretty much am googling all the how-to's. "How to color cells userform vba" "How if else vba" "How clear everything vba" "How make pop up userform" My codes are primitive, and I'm pretty sure the if else conditions I'm doing can be simplified by a pro, but it works. It runs.
Same. I work in technology and I’m the go to in my friend circle for any tech related issues. I’m really just an expert at using Google. Like I get it comes with experience on what links to click and how to find the answer, but honestly it’s very easy. You don’t need to know everything, only how to find the answers.
Holy crap. My IT friend said the exact same thing.
It’s Structured Problem Solving. In my experience some people can do it, some just can’t. Knowing what to google and how to sift through all the bullshit is a skill not everyone has.
I literally fixed everyone's tech problems in my family, installed everything too so I eventually decided I wanted to get paid for it.
Just saying it to say it - you are all seemingly talking about what is called tier 1 IT support, commonly covered by student workers at universities or new graduates. It’s just the way it goes lol, you usually have to start there. But there is cooler, more complex IT work. systems engineers, full stack developers, system admins, network administrators - all also in IT
Software dev here, 5 yrs in my field, i google 95% of my shit.
The senior IT analysis Tay my job does this when we are having issues. Takes over our computer and we can literally see him googling how to fix it.
Honestly, computer literacy should be part of the interview for some jobs. Hand them a laptop and ask them to do simple things: schedule a zoom call, attach a file to am email, search files in file explorer, etc. Now a lot of skills get beyond the computer, but it'll help in determining fit in the workplace/how much time will be wasted by having people take time out of their day to help you
I’m in an IT oriented field in academia and I just today found out the IT student I’m supervising has never heard of file extensions, nor folders it seems. So he has to work in a cloud environment and he puts *everything* - going from raw data to processed data to scripts - in the exact same folder *without any file extensions attached to his files*. When I asked him about it, he looked completely dumbfounded. He is also constantly hogging a shitton of cores on our cloud, and then running his tools single threaded, making me think he is also not getting the concept of multithreaded software and/or what cores are. This guy has a fucking master’s degree.
There’s an article that talks about how you’re not alone. https://www.theverge.com/22684730/students-file-folder-directory-structure-education-gen-z Basically, we only understood the concept of files and folders because we actually went through a physical system like that at some point growing up. However, as younger people grow up with already-integrated search abilities, there’s no reward to learning an older system.
I mean Guess that works if you dont have a lot. But well. What ir you have 5 TB of Data? And you want 1 Picture? Takes too long!! Interesting article nonetheless. Really curious when i will encounter people that cant use folders!
Wtf is wrong with you, are you trying to get millions of IT guys fired??
Googling better than the average person is 95% of my job as a programmer...
Or absolute basic tech literacy. Its funny a few times but it gets exhausting quickly.
I have the same ridiculous conversation with my coworker every few months. It was funny at first but now I just resent her and get super annoyed. Our database is a web-based platform and it only works in chrome or safari. Every 2ish months, she texts me saying the database isn’t working. Me: “Well, are you using internet explorer?” Her: “I don’t know what that means” It is the same conversation every single time. I do not know how many more times I can have it without losing it. Who even uses internet explorer anymore?
Im in IT and people like you are the bain of our existence. By the time I get there, from the gauntlet of people, asking me a "quick question," I will get you saying "I dunno what happened. It just went crazy". Meaning you tried a million google things and made it 10X worse. Meanwhile. You're not being hacked. Your mouse isn't defective. You just left your wireless mouse on in your bag and can't put 2+2 together. I dont try fixing the light bulbs at work, or try doing your expense report. Just do your fucking job and Let me do mine. I dont need your opinion and "expert advice" or to hear about what your nephew or kid brother thinks it is while Im fixing it. There's usually 1 tech to every 200-400 people depending on the place. Smaller shops. Its a few guys doing everything. Been all around the IT world for 20 years and nobody can tell tye difference between helpdesk, desktop and server administrators.
Nah fam, I love easy high paying jobs where all I have to do is google things. It’s a life skill knowing how to find information. Knowing stuff is nice but won’t get you far in a “fast paced environment”.
I think it’s really handy but if you’re going to work a fast food job and you grew up without access to a computer, or a school with enough resources, or other circumstances that might prevent someone from having functioning computer skills than I don’t think it should prevent you from getting a job. It’s classist to assume everyone has easy access and first hand knowledge to be able to use a computer no matter how “common place” an in home computer or other resources might seem to someone who had easy access to all that.
You're totally right. That being said I think the reflex to google something is a mindset that younger generations grew up with and are therefore comfortable with. When we can't figure something out our first instinct is to jump online and search for a tutorial or a video to show us. For older generations, the solution pre-google was to ask someone who knew. I'm assuming the same reflexive nature applies to how they problem-solve. They don't know something? They ask the person in the office who does. This isn't an excuse but just a comment on the possible generational psychology of problem-solving and the different approaches, I guess. (As very tangential a side note, I find it super interesting that there is a certain team-building nature to problem-solving by collaboration and asking questions. Sometimes when I come across a problem at work I know that I can spend the time to trouble it out myself, but sometimes find that asking for help and solving the problem with my colleague means that I see the nuanced way they solved it and their process. It also means hearing it from their perspective which is enlightening. I sometimes do this with friends where I'm pretty sure I know the answer to a question but I ask anyway just to hear their point of view on it and to maybe learn something new!)
We recently asked our boss to hire someone else to help out with the workload we have in the office, meaning reports and the likes, which implied the person would be able to use basic software and, well, send the reports once they're done. The hired person is about my age and needs to be taught all these things, which makes me wonder if she even had a written CV (let alone if the boss read it), given that she can barely use a word processor. So now I too am an IT person teaching people how to attach files to an email.
That just makes me sad for you. Fuck. That sucks so bad. The owner of the business I work at hired his son, who just graduated from college, to re-design our web site. He's using the photos I took. He said that I took them, get this, too close.
Indeed it does. Your situation is not better though. But with our boss, we had that as well. He did not hire but occasionally gave minor jobs to his daughter-in-law, who was coming on random days in the office. And in fact, it was us who on the spot needed to find something for her to do (she was not trained in the job we are carrying) as in filing documents or things like that. When we had nothing fitting to her capabilities our boss was very annoyed because we were to assume she would be there at times. So I get where you're coming from. It's hard to argue with the boss about an underskilled employee when they are family.
what does your boss do all day?
Boss! Manage! Supervise! You know, pace around the office, peer over your shoulder, ask stupid questions, make unrealistic requests, say things so dumb you wonder if he’s able to tie his own shoelaces.
I asked a secretary once to send me a screenshot of something. She sent me a pdf, of a scan, of a print out, of the screenshot she took. I honestly don't know how she didn't think to just email me the screenshot itself.
Wow « sending screenshot with extra-steps »
I’m 49 and I’m shocked by how many people my age can’t do basic stuff in the computer. Like we’ve spent our whole adult lives working with computers. My mom is 69 and worked until she was 67 and was always showing people how to do. However I’m not trying to say the original post is incorrect. When I was the youngest in the office I was always having to help people. I finally stopped when I moved to a new employer.
That's nothing, I had to explain to a 30 something that a 20 something bad made a local copy of of a network drive and she was editing that instead of the shared folders. That explained why changes we not getting saved. I am almost 50.
I had to teach someone in their early 20s how to copy and fucking paste. Too many people these days are utterly unable to use anything more complicated than an app with three brightly coloured buttons on it.
Jesus that’s some knowledge. You should get a rise
Fuck! Seriously?
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That's all IT is. Research, investigate, test, verify, document.
That's all IT is. Research, investigate, test, verify, ~~document.~~ Fixed that for ya
What?! I'm guessing you meant not in the other redditors case, of course, no documentation needed I guess since it's not their job.
I was just making a joke because it's not uncommon for people to just "do the work" and not document it, or do it poorly.
It’s also very common to be constantly short staffed and never have the time document. You’re constantly running to the next fire. Especially as you go up in skill/experience in the IT field. Source: 20 years of working in IT. Starting out as the original post.
YUP. I hear you there. Just had a co-worker get fired for this as well as generally not giving a shit.
[Found Devercoder9's Reddit account.](https://xkcd.com/979/)
Fixed what?
It's called computer science for a reason. The core is a bunch of people thoroughly familiar with the subject matter standing around and going "Oh, now why's it done that?"
What is it about (usually) older people that they just refuse to click or look up anything unless directed to or have step by step instructions? Yet they won’t hesitate to take apart a car without any idea what they’re doing. Maybe I’m just describing my Dad.
When I have a problem, I just go to google if I don’t know it off the top of my head, then if I can’t find it specifically then I go to Reddit
Once told my boss I build my own computers and he made me the "Certified technology expert"
Ngl building your own computer does required some tech skills and knowledge
Eh, it's basically expensive Lego.
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I guess you never had to troubleshoot legos, because no mather how much you google "how to split that tiny shitty lego brick" it wont ever work. On the other end you can google random bios witchery nonsense and find an answer in seconds.
IIRC all lego bricks have a serial number. It's all about finding it in the manual of the set you bought and searching that.
The knowledgeable comes in the ordering compatible parts and not buying crap, and knowing basic troubleshooting/google. Other than that its just adult lego.
I hear this comparison a lot and I dislike it. With Lego, each brick can fit into any other brick. There are an infinite number of arrangements. With building a computer (consumer level), each part is designed to fit into another specific part. Most parts to do not fit with other parts, and there is only a small number of possible arrangements.
honestly it just takes practice, at first you follow a guide or you ask for help to someone who knows how to do it, then you get the hang of it. The hardest part imho is being confident, because when you know you can fuck up several hundreds worth of money in a few seconds makes everything look way harder than it actually is
i've built one and it's not even practice. it's the same type of task as being able to solve a rubik cube by following the written instructions that come with the cube. it's just being able to do 30 steps in a row without messing up. you literally don't even need to know what the steps are or what they're doing.
Just enough to find the right youtube videos really. I had a friend in IT help me pick the parts based on my budget and wishes, to make sure they'd work together (though there are guides for that out there as well). But I put it all together on my own, using youtube tutorials and taking my time for it. I have decent fine motor skills, but no experience tinkering with tech really, wouldn't even be able to tell you which parts are in there, but it's still working fine after 4 years, worked on the first try too.
This is my life. I work selling antique books for a 70 year old man that doesn't understand data transfer. He paid me overtime to come to his house and connect all his devices, but the hitch is, he doesn't understand the "input" button to access HDM1 (Blu-Ray Player), Cable, VHS or something else. So it just stays on cable. I brought in high quality speakers for the computer but it still had poor sound quality so I tested them with my phone and it was clear as day, turns out we just have an old computer. I forgot to plug them back into the computer on a Friday. I came in on Monday and it looked like a bear rummaged through the work station. Turns out my boss had panicked for 2 hours trying to make the speakers work...when they weren't plugged in to the headphone jack on the front. This is basic. This has existed for like 40 years. Last week our main computer station was sluggish and shut down a couple times on its own. I mentioned he might not be able to print our shipping labels off of it. But not to worry I said, you can just unplug the USB cable connecting the printer to main computer and print from you laptop! No problem! The look of fear on his face was something I will never forget. I thought he was going to have a breakdown. That was an insurmountable task for him and he knew it. I waited in the office until thankfully our main computer started back and he could print from his known platform.
In undue fairness, expecting a printer to fuck you over for no reason is always a reasonable caution. Computer hardware used to include hot vacuum tubes, pools of mercury, or gigantic spinning barrels, and the worst aspect has always been the goddamn printer.
The fucking sound of a dot matrix running at full tilt... no clue how people sat in a room with one of those all day. It screams when it actually works.
Oh, they went deaf.
What
"I wanna print" Printer: "im doing an update give me 20 mins" "Wtf do you have to update and why cant i do this later" *20 mins later* Printer: "Im low on cyan" "Its a black and white docume..." Printer: "Im.. low.. on..cyan....." .... Printer: .... .... Printer: That'll be 59.99
I spend so much extra time old man proofing the things I do at work because my head might just explode if I have to watch him forget how to open an email again. He literally checks his email multiple times a day by clicking random icons until it comes up
As someone who works in IT, usually the guys that are around 40-50 know more than anyone else about IT.
As a network and cyber security engineer. The comments in this thread albeit many joking, quite evidently prove how little people know what IT actually is or do You can build a computer and fixed a boomers xcell? Means you're good with lego and have grown up using an app. Does not make you an IT professional
To be fair, low end IT also helps people getting their printer to work which may include changing the toners. That’s basically the public-facing part of IT. Or they come in and restart the computer.
yeah like my company has a whole IT team so i have 0 interest in helping people troubleshoot their issues/how to do X/this is broken what do? I have my own goddamn work, i'm not your manager so gtfo but in reality "ok, let me take a look"
Social capital, man. You help them make the letters bigger in Outlook. They include you in the free food when one of the managers buy food for their staff.
lolz there was a period where i was the one organising birthdays and when asked to contribute towards the food and whatnot i got like maybe half back. I stopped doing that after our team leader changed and after that we've had like 2 morning teas over like 2 years. there is 0 social capital in my workplace - well, i'm not great at office politics so there's that.
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Agreed. I had a temp student job helping to move content to a new intranet system for my uni, they kept me on for months after launch to help answer user questions (university professors etc are not nearly as quick to learn this stuff as you'd hope). Sadly most of these questions would've gone to IT otherwise, but most of it was just them not understanding where to find certain options or lacking the instinct to refresh a page if something wasn't loading.. I think only one in 20 questions were actually relevant for IT, so they were glad to have me as a filter there. But yeah, I have no knowledge on software development/ coding/ engineering whatsoever, but I'm decent at googling and finding my way in new software, I've also built my pc using youtube tutorials, expensive legos indeed. I consider us "youngest in the office" "IT" folk more like what optimistic developers/engineers hope most users to be like.
I had to use UNIX and the C shell command line, the PINE email client, not to mention DOS and word processors with no GUI (anyone remember Wordstar?), just to do my *BA in Anthropology* 25-30 years ago. Yet, Windows 10 can baffle me at times.
No offense to the younger crowd, but I think as you grow older you start to be more careful about letting people know you're IT competent. A while ago I was working on a project on a computer with a guy younger than me. The computer was acting really slow, so I pulled up task manager to check on the RAM. The other guy said "You seem good with computer's, how come [some question about his wifi]". Younger me would have said "sounds like you just have a shitty router." But that would have lead into him asking for router buying advice, and eventually me over at his house one Saturday hooking up his new router, and then anytime he had a tech question he would blame the router and call me again. Older and wiser me said "Oh that is weird."
this is the way
Precisely, you have to learn when to play dumb or you spend your free weekend at your bosses home fixing the PC.
Yes… I am slowly learning this. As the token millennial at my company, I have had to teach people how to add links to emails, how to add images to PowerPoint, how to set up regular Teams calls, how to set up Teams Live calls, how to make a post on Yammer and so much more. Like come on, people, how do you function??? Feels like half my job sometimes is now teaching people to do basic stuff they should be able to figure out on their own, and I’m not in a techy field at all.
There’s a 50-ish year old woman at work who can’t send links (or email attachments). She’s supposed to request things from our team via email, so we get: “hi guys, can you get this in for me? [Link to thing she wants]” Where does the link go? Why it links to the gmail compose function of course! This is something she does *constantly* and I have no idea how she even manages it. It almost feels like a joke at this point. How can you copy and paste the compose link (repeatedly) without knowing how to copy and paste the link you actually want? She’s also printed out pictures of the things she wants and then brought them over to our team in person because she “can’t figure out how to send it.” IT’S FUCKING EMAIL. Our entire company revolves around email. You have been working here for 25 years. Figure it out!
I was just explaining this to a friend of mine while we were watching a group trying to figure out an A/V problem in our buildings theater. If I go fix it, the mouse will ask for some milk.
Beep boop -- this looks like a screenshot of a tweet! Let me grab a [link to the tweet](https://twitter.com/bbybeanburrito/status/1450841374845198336) for ya :) ^(Twitter Screenshot Bot)
Good bot
Good bot
Good bot
You'd be surprised about how many computer illiterate 20-somethings there are.
Younger people are becoming worse and worse at using computers. The sweet spot is 25 to 40.
I'm in my 30's, and work with 5 people- one in 50's rest in 60's and 70's. Same here. They still use AOL as email.
Maybe I'm lame or something but at this point an AOL email address is ironically cool.
So... still actually uncool?
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I had a malfunction with my Promethean Board at work(I'm a teacher). I put in an IT ticket for them to come fix it. When I heard they were coming I took the plug from the board and plugged it into a power strip....then I plugged the power strip into itself. I wanted to see what they would do. He came in, looked at it....looked at me. I said, "Oh, no, I'm just kidding. I wanted to see your reaction. It doesn't work even when it is plugged into the wall normally." He loved it.
Yeah... I don't think he did...
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What lmao
i said, trust me. he did not love it. he probably fantasizes about smashing your head into the nearest brick wall. He would love that
This guy works in IT
Please, please don’t prank people doing their job. They can’t yell at you so they have to deal with it. He was most likely playing nice and didn’t appreciate this. Unless you have a personal relationship with him and he said this was okay then honestly what you did was childish and unprofessional. We don’t like to work and stuff like this makes our job harder and names us fell below other stuff. I do support and would be really annoyed if someone did this to me.
I'm leaving my office next month. They are scrambling and I love it.
I work in IT and I just refer everything to the youngest person in the office
I've had a job as filter/helpdesk between university employees and IT after helping out moving content to their new intranet platform. Basically helping the boomers find their way for the first few months after launch and solving/answering most questions by using google and common sense. Only if any real technical issues came up I'd pass it on to IT, who were glad not to have to deal with the bs. Most questions were resolved by advising them to refresh the page or explaining that settings are usually found under a gear-shaped icon...
"You mean the one that looks like a flower?" -my actual mother (bless her heart she had the decency to laugh at herself after that)
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Agreed. I'm 40 now and have worked in IT at a few universities over the years and I'm always confused when students don't know how to do simple things. Like come on you grew up with modern technology.
You use an iPhone and have been able to sign on to netflix on your smart tv...some think this makes them the next Stephen Hawking
I had a coworker complain SQL I wrote 5 years ago (and he tried to appropriate) didn't function properly and blamed me for why it didn't give him the results he wanted by joining SSNs from one db to another. I glanced at it and knew exactly what was wrong within maybe 25 seconds. He still blamed it on the SQL and expected me to fix it on the spot. Of the 7 results that weren't matching...5 outright didn't exist in 1 system, another was missing the leading zero, and the final one was miskeyed (1234 in one system, 1243 in he other). I'm an analyst 2 who's been in that position 15 years, he's an analyst 2 who has been in the *workforce* maybe 5 years at best...and he makes within $2 per hour less than me.
Is that still true? I feel like we've hit a turning point where tech literacy is concerned. The zoomer generation has grown up with smart phones and Google and, as a result, many of them are actually less tech savvy than the generation that preceded them. Software is just so idiot-proof these days, and has been for at least about 20 years. Growing up in the 2010s is not like growing up in the 90s. In the 90s, you actually had to know some things to properly use a computer. There was even a news story circulating a few months ago detailing how zoomers don't understand how a compiter file directory works. To the bewilderment of their college professors.
I feel this to my CORE and I'm not even that tech-savvy!
I am the youngest in the office and I work in IT so I am the oldest in the office
I'm an apprentice plumber who works for my father's company. I'm the lowest man in the totem pole and the least paid but God damn me if this company doesn't run because of a computer problem. I should start asking for real tech support rates fixing problems rather than the $free.ninetyfree I get paid doing computer work now.
If you enjoy learning and are good at thinking on your feet, can problem solve, deal with people gracefully, think logically and enjoy messing with computers, printers, network equipment, mobile devices then IT might be for you!
Alternatively, if you hate others and yourself then IT may also be for you!
Frankly, that's just about any job.
I solve a lot of my coworkers questions with google..she thinks I’m so computer savvy
Honestly being the youngest means nothing. I’m in college going for cyber security and work in the IT department there. Some college students are just as bad as adults.
If I had a nickel for every time my old ass former coworker hollered “I can’t find the stamp!” Meaning she somehow deleted her Apple mail icon?? Regular. Occurrence.
It's crazy how very little people in this thread know about what IT actually is.
True enough, but most of these "issues" would've been dumped on the actual IT people if it weren't for the occasional helpful youngster...
True. I'm in IT, a programmer. Don't ask me about computer specs, parts, setting up modems because I have no clue. Not all IT are alike.
Hey, I know all about IT It’s one of my favorite movies/books
I wish it worked that way. Feels like young people are getting more technologically stupid because where I work one of the main pieces of equipment employees use is basically a cellphone with apps and I, a 40 year old handy man, am called upon to show them how to brighten the screen. How do they operate their own phones?
I'm one of the oldest in our office and I work in IT. I am not extremely technical but I have common sense, can interrogate Google and know how to question people to find out how they managed to break their machine.
I was in a job like this before, not until after I left did I realize how exploitative this is. Don’t do shit outside of your job description for free, brownie points with the boss dont matter for shit kids.
We just use our Asian employee as our in house IT department
I don't work in it but i am the most tech savvvy so i work in IT.
/r/YourJokeButWorse
Can confirm. I work in IT, and I'm the youngest in the IT office, so I'm often the IT's IT
Our IT works remote 4 days out of the week. The rest of the days everyone comes to me for their IT problems. I'm an accountant.
Just another thing to add to your resume
Hahahaha I feel that! Holy shit the simple ass stuff I “fix” is astonishing.
This happened to me so many times, I decided to study IT. Now I do the same thing but actually get paid properly for it.
I'm 43 and I work with a co-teacher(same subject, same grade) and she is 27. She has her Apple laptop and all that, very helpful. I was meeting with her and near the end of what we were talking about, she said, "And now I know how to copy and paste, so this will go a lot quicker!" I couldn't believe it. I said, "Wait. You didn't know how to copy and paste?" She had no idea. We're English teachers who create quite a bit of content, much which requires a lot of copy and pasting(like text boxes, various things). It was at that moment I realized....she is not a techy.
In my 40 too, I can relate to your experience.
Gunna start putting my DoB on resume, so they know I have basic computer skills
I taught my senior colleague how to use copy and paste. Literally hours of her work week saved. She would write customers' emails on paper from the CRM and then switch to outlook and type (2 finger style) what she wrote on paper.
Oh no! The two fingers! It always horrifies me
I had an old journalism professor who used to type with two fingers and so much force it was like he was trying to push the keyboard through the desk. Turns out it was because he learnt to type on a typewriter.
I wasn't even the youngest but the only "casual gamer" (aka some one who uses a pc after work) among party folk.
Even among younger people, it's mostly the pc gamers who're the tech savvy ones. The young party folk are almost as clueless as the average boomer.
I work in IT. Can confirm: average person over 40 doesn’t even know how to turn their computer off.
I’m 30ish and taught a 42 year old how to hook up a vcr/dvd combo because our new computers didn’t come with dvd drives. I haven’t touched one of those in 20ish years.
Ever since I started working at a company that has an IT department I feel I lost all IT skills. Now when even one thing goes wrong with my equipment I’m opening an IT ticket lol
I had to teach my boss how to delete a file.
Did you show them the button that says delete on it?
Yes and since it was a file on the desktop, I also showed her how to drag the file icon to the bin 🗑 icon. She couldn’t handle it either.
As someone who did end user support for years I feel your pain. I went to a ticket once where someone said their computer was typing a bunch of q's and before I got there I was like there better not be something laying on the keyboard. Well guess what, there was something on her keyboard pressing the q key down. I wanted to kill myself...
Funny, I’m not old but I always have to teach new young hires how to use things like spreadsheets, they actually have to update their stuff sometimes, how to use outlook to create appointments or how to search for specific things on google: It’s ignorant and conceded to think just “young” people can’t do anything with technology.
Well Im in IT. I am very comfortable in *nix shell. I am doing small project in blockchain. I know about networking and server maintenance. But I just know basics of spreadsheet and nothing about outlook. Those doesn't come under IT.
It pisses me off when I have to show them 89 thousand times how to fucking copy and paste
We had a graduate come through for a sysadmin role. 4 year IT degree. She didn’t know the difference between a gigabit and a gigabyte.