Generally people don’t understand how to ask questions because they usually just “Go to someone” and “they’ll do it” for them.
If some of their questions were asked on forums, and they actually had to research their problems they would inherently understand how the problem is solved, just by searching the forums. So many forums..

It’s too bad when they are trolled though.
Maybe an automatic function from google to Google it for them sounds correct. Or windows Binging them to the right spot, for a randomized, simplified answer, who knows..
OR MAYBE, automatic answers from bots which google the questions! :D

[…] many people out there just don’t know how to ask tech support questions. If you work in end-user support the most difficult part of the job is figuring out what the hell […]

umm I tried to click the link to that post but the page didn’t do the thing and when when I finally got though, it wouldn’t let me do the word thing because of ugh computers.

Just so EVERYONE knows – the Karen in question is NOT me….

Personally I don’t like this direction. It seems like a step backwards IMHO. We are replacing complex general purpose machines with limited utility purpose appliances. That does not seem right. Besides, it is not working the way it should.

Didn’t say I like it :P Just seems to be the way things are going. It is however an unfortunate truth that lusers are going to continue to luse, whatever we do to try to stop them.

About kids, high school is way to late. You should start to expose them to computers as early as possible. 3yo max. Obviously I mean games, drawing, and with help and supervision. You’d be surprised how fast they learn.

The fact that you use the computer also helps get them used to it. As toddlers they love to do whatever you do, and it makes them feel important just to sit on your lap and see what is going on on the screen. A simple text editor at full screen, with over-sized fonts, let them hit the keyboard and see letters appear on the screen, and they’ll will be delighted. And even more when they start to learn to spell.

I agree with Luke on the OS agnosticism. I want them to learn to use computers, even more, to learn how to learn about computers, not just some restricted set of tools. At my kid’s school they use windows (I think schools should be forced to show different possibilities, but that’s another story), at home I installed an old computer with Ubuntu and some packages from the Edubuntu suite. At 4-5 years old they don’t need any help to boot it up, start Tux or some of the games, and play on their own. And probably as soon as they read/write with some fluency is time to start with the console and some programming. I haven’t get there yet…

The problem with computers at school, is also this terrible luser idea that learning “computers” means learning very basic Windows, “Enternet”, and MSOffice. And the fact is that more often than not “decision makers” are lusers. At least where I live.

@ mcai8sh4:

Nah, I already know the other perspective: “We are elitist pompous assholes for making fan of people who were obviously not born with the rare knack for using a web browser properly”. I am completely uninterested in that perspective because IMHO it is full of crap. :)

@ Sam Weston:

True but… Most people don’t actually think you are a genius. They will say stuff like that when they want to get on your good side so that you will fix their machine in the future. Most people I have ever talked to treat it more like an inborn gift – something you just happen to have – not something you have learned the hard way. You just have the gift – the computer stuff just comes easy to you. Not only that – they also think you are loving it. That there is nothing in this world you would be rather doing than removing spyware from their computers.

Hey, you like technology? I have a broken computer? Wanna fix it for fun? Hell, I’ll even pay you for it – but it’s going to be a fun learning experience for you I bet. Sigh..

@ Rob:

Well, some people are forced to use IE at work – so when I see that icon I try not to judge. But yeah, Karen is doubtlessly one of those people who thinks that the big E stands for “Enternet”.

@ JKjoker:

Or not even that. Make them use different operating systems. I have already decided that if I have kids, I will expose them to all major operating systems and show them how they differ and where they are almost the same with respect to concepts and UI paradigms. My goal in life is to produce offspring that is completely OS agnostic, and can sit down at any computer and figure it out how to do basic things regardless of what OS it is running.

I’m beginning to think that High School is way to late to start training these skills – just because by that time the kids are already set in their habits, and already have certain social preconceptions (ie. knowing how to use a computer makes you a nerd and etc..)

@ copperfish:

Well, I think we picked these metaphors in order to make it easy for people to visualize and understand what was going on. I mean we could call them moops and wiples for example, but for some reason I don’t think that would help much.

I think that the problem here is that a lot of people have trouble dealing with abstractions. After all things like windows, folder, desktops, panels, files and etc are abstract concepts that don’t actually exist anywhere. A file is a virtual construct that represents a collection of bytes scattered across the hard drive. It is not a physical thing – and it does not behave like a physical thing.

@ John:

I personally love this one:

“Is the server down?”
“Not that I know of… Let me check… It’s working fine.”
“Oh… Ok… Cause I can’t get out on the Google… It says something about Mozilla page… Did you guys update the google recently?”

Turns out his internet was down due to a local outage.

Kevin Benko wrote:

In my opinion, if the “computer as an appliance” mindset ceased, the Tech-Support experience would probably be improved.

I completely agree with this. Computers are not appliances and they should not be treated as such.

@ Matt`:

Personally I don’t like this direction. It seems like a step backwards IMHO. We are replacing complex general purpose machines with limited utility purpose appliances. That does not seem right. Besides, it is not working the way it should.

When iPhones first came out most people who got them knew how to use a smartphone. Now that smartphones are a thing, all the “computer illiterate” people want them, and then realize they are also “phone illiterate”.

People already ask me all the time to set up their email, to download iPhone apps for them and etc. I’m like “dude, I don’t even own one of these. I have a POS Storm that keeps freezing up”.

And the phones are becoming more complex. They have fully fledged web browsers and file systems. The new batch of phones like HTC Incredible and NexusOne approach the power and capacity of regular desktop computers from 4-5 years ago. And are only slightly less complex – mostly due to the fact they are not supposed to be general purpose devices but communication platforms. Plus they can be easily flashed and backed up and people don’t have as much data tied up in their phones yet. But they will eventually.

In my opinion, if the “computer as an appliance” mindset ceased, the Tech-Support experience would probably be improved

Or if more computers actually were like appliances… Apple seem to be doing good trade in devices that don’t really do all the fancy computing stuff like we’d want them to, but are harder to go wrong with.

Compartmentalise every task into an ‘app’ and (l)users can learn to use said apps without having to understand scary things like browsers and file systems. Take away the options and the complexity and you take away all the avenues by which people who don’t know any better can fuck stuff up.

I think that the MOFT (Microsoft) operating system has given *some* relatively clueless people a tool that they really should not, for whatever reason, be using. It seems to me that too many LART-bait have been conditioned to just click “OK” on any pop-up message– as if there is a *big*problem* that will be made OK by clicking OK.

I run Linux exclusively, and I do use packages that are not yet ready for prime-time. When I get any sort of pop-up message, I do a screen-capture of the error, or I use that pencil-paper thing and make squiggly things on the paper stuff with the pencil-stick to… ya know… make me do that remembering FILTER when I type on that gobble searchy thing on the interweb

;)

These people need to figure out that a computer is not an appliance, it is a dynamic system, and that when the computer is trying to tell you something… it’s probably important enough to read and understand.

In my opinion, if the “computer as an appliance” mindset ceased, the Tech-Support experience would probably be improved.

I got this question by email ( it came several days after it was sent ) A phone call would have been better. LOL

“John, I sent 3 messages on the computer, one the 30th and two after and both are still in the send box, what can I do? I unpluged the computer and restarted it but that didn”t help. They are still in the out box, this probably will not go either.”