I’m not tech support (just Gen Z), but apparently I am now

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cofclabman@reddit

Having worked in tech-support for 30+ years, it is amazing to me how shockingly bad people are with even the most basic of technology. And it’s not just the older generation younger generations who grew up with computers also don’t understand the most basic concepts frequently.

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firedraco@reddit

I heard recently that there are tons of young people coming into CS that don't know how files/filesystems work because you don't actually have to use them anymore and I died a little inside, even though it made sense lol.

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simeumsm@reddit

I worked with a recently-graduated gen-z data scientist that had issues:

1) Organizing folders (his project folder was inside the downloads folder, and for some reason was sort and grouped by date, and never felt the need to organize it better)

2) Referencing files by their absolute path (never learned to point to a file that's sitting on another directory, couldn't navigate a folder structure very well)

3) Get files all mixed up because he simply ignored file extensions (tried to read a file named file.csv.csv by referencing file.csv)

It baffles me how someone that should be speaking computer AND logic can't get their head around things that are so simple

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gotohelenwaite@reddit

Windows default is to hide file extensions. Every time our IT reimaged or upgraded a workstation, I had to re-enable the "show file extensions" option.

One of the earliest Windows malware exploits was simply taking advantage of Windows hiding .com/.exe executable extensions by inserting a benign false extension like .jpg/.gif/.pdf to fool the user into clicking on it. That's why I curse the "hide extensions" option.

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Prom3th3an@reddit

That didn't stop them disguising .com files as Web bookmark files, back when those ran with no sandbox.

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syntaxerror53@reddit

For most users, its better that it's hidden as they would rename a file like "Monthly Figures.xlsx" to "Monthly Figures Oct 25" then wonder why they can't open it or find it in Excel.

I always enable File Extensions and Show Hidden Files.

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firedraco@reddit

Tbh, I have seen CS students that were just as bad growing up...some people don't learn logic yet somehow still passed courses. :/

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Vegetable-Intern2313@reddit

The biggest problem that I have with my employees (who are mostly 18-22 because it's a student job at a university) is that they are used to everything autosaving, because that's how it works with Google Drive/Office 365.

Like, we joke about how kids these days don't know that the save icon is supposed to look like a floppy disk, but legit I think some of my employees have never manually saved a file in their lives.

We have a number of legacy systems that we use that do not support autosave and I am constantly having to drill into people that they MUST MANUALLY SAVE when they are done working.

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Prom3th3an@reddit

On some Linux desktop environments, the save icon is an arrow pointing to a hard drive.

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cofclabman@reddit

That doesn’t surprise me in the slightest. I was peripherally involved in a project to test incoming college freshman’s computer skills. 10 questions of the ‘save a file in word to a specific folder’ level of difficulty type questions. They could miss 4 of 10 questions and still pass. Only 30% of students passed in the two years we did it.

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Dare63555@reddit

U don't just save everything to the downloads folder? Weirdo.

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ItalyLostWW2@reddit

Nah, that’s what the recycle bin is for /s

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blind_ninja_guy@reddit

I find it bizarre that there are coding platforms nowadays that don't use files, such as Jupiter notebooks. Imagine a coding platform which is a data pipeline and people just cobbled together chunks of code in the pipeline in little cells. It feels exactly like something someone threw together to help the generation that didn't know about files. It took me ages to figure out how to use the thing since I always want to organize my code into files and split it up appropriately. I still don't like using it if I can avoid it at all.

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firedraco@reddit

From what I've seen, those notebook things are more for just testing and debugging stuff like a throwaway script file/instance. I guess it shouldn't surprise me some people try to use it as their "IDE" lol...

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Epistaxis@reddit

I see the slow evolution of file browsers, desktops, etc. as UI developers trying for decades to coax people into using filesystems logically and efficiently, then gradually giving up on society as search tools got better.

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firedraco@reddit

Yeah lol...

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ScheduleCorrect3412@reddit

There is definitely a gap. Before 90's and after 2000 ish. In that timefrane a lot if younger people (15-30 agewise) were building their own machines and installing windows (3.1/95/98/2000/xp/nt) on a daily bases. Because it was affordable. Before the 90's computers were for offices and rich people, after that you got phones and a lot of prebuild apps. Nobody experienced the wonderful joy of getting your soundblaster card to work with a certain game using drivers from a diskette that you borrowed from a friend, because yours didn't work anymore.

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dustojnikhummer@reddit

I think that graph can be people born 85-05. After that you get the iPad generation.

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spaceraverdk@reddit

85? I'm feeling old. I'm older than that.

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Geminii27@reddit

I think one of the things that first got me into computers - aside from reading the hell out of 50s-60s 'harder' sci-fi - was going to some kind of university computer demonstration in the eighties and coming home with a computer-plotter printout of a 3D graph. Nothing spectacular, just something vaguely resembling a wireframe hill - but with part of the wireframe not plotted because it was 'hidden' behind the peak. Absolutely mindblowing for my younger self at the time. I kept it pinned up on a corkboard for years.

And of course, electronics in general being fascinating to pint-size me. Even if it was more or less cassette-tech at that point.

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Geminii27@reddit

The younger people have never used a desktop/laptop.

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oloryn@reddit

Unless of course, it was only for gaming.

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commentsrnice2@reddit

At work I struggle to teach people to fill out a form using a form that has matching key terms on the columns. Like “OK this paper form I just walked you through putting information in with a pen. All the information on it goes into this submission form. Every box matches the boxes on the paper. gets a confused look back so what do I type here?”

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chrisgreely1999@reddit

Sounds like you need a raise given your newfound responsibilities.

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Gullible_Umpire_3893@reddit (OP)

I know right!

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Diminios@reddit

But apparently that makes me the company’s new IT department now.

Yep. You done goofed.

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Dafrandle@reddit

if this is a legit story - bail from that place as soon as possible. any company run like that is running into the ground eventually.

the average users should not have permissions to install applications.

also good job knowing how a file system works because that's apparently not a given anymore.

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Padouch1038@reddit

This is very normal state of computer user level of intelligence and knowledge. I have worked 10 years in IT, and most people in corporates have room temperature IQ and the companies love it!
I thought a lot of those jokes were just jokes, until I started my first IT admin position. No, they are not.

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Steerider@reddit

Here, this will come in handy. Go with God.

https://xkcd.com/627/

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keesbeemsterkaas@reddit

With a strongly worded advice of this: xkcd: Workaround

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zman0900@reddit

Except now the googling part has like a 25% chance of giving you some AI nonsense equivalent to "try deleting c:/windows"

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Martiantripod@reddit

Ignore the AI crap at the start of the results and actually click on a result link. People claiming they googled something but only read the AI summary are no better than asking someone from the local pub. You might get lucky, but usually there will be a lot BS in the answers

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asmcint@reddit

Unfortunately actual results are lower quality than they used to be too. It used to be if you had to check multiple search engines to find your issue you were truly lost. Now I genuinely have to alternate between DuckDuckGo and Google just to have a decent chance of having my search correctly interpreted in the first place, especially since Google just ignores its own syntax willy nilly now.

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Filosifee@reddit

Fun fact, if you include a curse word in your google search it prevent the ai garbage. Also I typically just default to “thing I’m trying to find an answer to: reddit” and search 7 year old threads first before any other Google result.

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nullpassword@reddit

Your search parameters are used for finding illegal material.. shut up moron ai..apparently knowing how to search is now illegal..figures..

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asmcint@reddit

What the actual fuck are you talking about

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anubisviech@reddit

And then you can still end up in an archived reddit posts with the same question with no useful answer.

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Loko8765@reddit

Who were you, Denvercoder9???

That actually inspired me for my third post to this sub… eight years ago already.

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GeckoOBac@reddit

ROTFL I opened your post... To see that I had upvoted it back then, in fact I even commented.

Still in the field too.

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androshalforc1@reddit

Ive definitely found my own solution too an annoying bug at least once playing a game.

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Geminii27@reddit

Yeah, but people who aren't that familiar with result pages can't tell the difference.

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Moneia@reddit

It's not even about familiarity. The just don't care.

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Taniwha351@reddit

Putting a swear in your search stops clankers.

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ex-farm-grrrl@reddit

If you put a swear word in the search terms, the AI crap doesn’t pop up. Maybe not great to do on a work computer, but it works

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0oBeasto0@reddit

you can also just put -ai

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ex-farm-grrrl@reddit

Swearing is more fun

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TheKnackThatQuacks@reddit

Since when have search engines actually followed syntax?

I damn near cried when Google stopped recognizing the syntax they specified to use! Fortunately, some of it still works (site: prefix is probably my most used), but I remember trying Boolean search operators and being disappointed when I realized that those search results were not the result of the query I had typed. I feel like they did that because people would complain that “I didn’t get any results!”. Well, maybe there are actually no results? “Impossible!” And/or they couldn’t sell ads if there were no results displayed.

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Aln76467@reddit

Ddg still follows it.

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spectraphysics@reddit

That command actually fixes many problems so you can then install Linux. 🥹

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IJustAteABaguette@reddit

Just add "Reddit" after the search text. Increases chance of success by 50%

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le_birb@reddit

All the more reason to practice

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maroongrad@reddit

Sys32.

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Mickenfox@reddit

Genuinely, people don't know how to look at words on screens.

People say AI is making us lazy, but a ton of people were already like this with Google and especially YouTube-age "video tutorials". These make up the majority of search results now because people would rather search "how to connect earbuds to phone" than spend literally 10 seconds remembering where the Bluetooth settings are and trying to do it themselves.

We need to start culturally recognizing intellectual laziness as a vice.

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urbear@reddit

This is nothing new. Early in my tech support career (perhaps 40 years. ago or thereabouts) I observed that everyone was demanding a recipe to follow blindly, not an actual solution to their problem. They complained if I tried to explain the fix, they just wanted me to tell them which buttons to push. The next time it or something similar happened they would have learned nothing and wasted everyone’s time asking for a new incantation.

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oloryn@reddit

That's the packer/mapper distinction striking again. You're a mapper trying to deal with a bunch of packers.

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TapdancingHotcake@reddit

They wouldn't read the 6 word error message detailing the exact reason for their issue, what makes you think they'll read a whole flowchart?

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Ophiochos@reddit

I swear there is an xkcd for everything.

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tslnox@reddit

As well as a Supernatural gif. :-D

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dustojnikhummer@reddit

There is always a relevant XKCD

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K-o-R@reddit

We haven't spent years learning everything. We have spent years learning how to find out everything.

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ask_compu@reddit

you'd be surprised how many grandparents struggle with even basic reading

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faithfulheresy@reddit

The fact that you have basic co outer literacy places you miles ahead of most of Gen Z.

Congratulations, this is your life now, as one of us. XD

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CannonBall7@reddit

We didn't choose tech support, tech support chose us.

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Dustquake@reddit

Demand a ticketing system. Until then go Indiana Jones and just say "No ticket." Until then. (The Last Crusade if you don't get the reference)

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davethecompguy@reddit

You need to send them all a phishing email, just to see what happens.

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Rideshare-Not-An-Ant@reddit

He'll wind up with Phish and find himself in a jam.

I'll see myself out...

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Roses_flower@reddit

I always called myself the tier 1 tech support at my last company - helping people install printers when they're at a new station, trusting the other/copier, helping with the EHR. All because I learned how to teach my mom, who is technologically illiterate.

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_Volly@reddit

You were not inventing fire.

You showed them that walking up-right is a better way to walk.

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nowildstuff_192@reddit

I have encountered computers with dozens of copies of Anydesk in the downloads folder. A few I've encountered over 50.

I used to ask "don't you ever wonder what that number next to the name means? Or why you see a long list of Anydesks in your downloads list whenever you download it?"

I stopped asking because the answers were predictable and depressing.

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key-winter1312@reddit

I had a call where someone was complaining that some software we support wasn't opening. After watching them try to open it I found out they were continually opening the installer for a program instead of the program itself.

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gramathy@reddit

This isn’t helped by installers that stick around and shitty windows Star menu search

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blind_ninja_guy@reddit

I recently had a fresh install of Windows, and it found the installer for Chrome Canary in my downloads folder every single time I tried to search for Chrome Canary in the Start Menu. I don't know if this is Satan's next move to get everyone to use Microsoft Edge or not, but it certainly seems like it.

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JaschaE@reddit

Genuinly have a couple programs I use once every couple months and the first thing coming up is always the unstaller, sharing the logo and name of the program I want -.-

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Gullible_Umpire_3893@reddit (OP)

Figures! haha

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Top_Box_8952@reddit

This reminds me every time I need to help my mother make a new document. I had to explain that she can’t edit a pdf. She learned at least.

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cronin98@reddit

It astounds me how bad people can be with programs they use every single working day.

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Geminii27@reddit

The vast majority of people never, ever explore anything. Even things they use every day. They were told to use a sequence and they commit it to muscle memory. If anything changes - a new icon, a new location for a button, the keyboard being moved an inch to the left - it completely throws their muscle memory out and they have no idea what to do.

No wonder people have to get issued driver's licenses. Otherwise they'd only know how to drive from home to work, and only if there is never any construction, different weather, a flat tire, or any changes ever to road layout. If they ever got a differently-colored car they'd be completely lost.

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commentsrnice2@reddit

It surprises me that we only make people redo the part where you can get lucky at guessing the answers. We should have to retake the physical test, especially after the age where reflexes decline

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usefulidiot21@reddit

There definitely aren't enough people with closed loop intelligence systems. It's open loop or die for the majority of people.

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Miles_Saintborough@reddit

We got a ton of people with licenses that still don't know how to drive properly. These are the same people that also fuck and vote.

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Geminii27@reddit

Possibly all at the same time, judging by some of the results.

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rskurat@reddit

Very few people are that dumb. You need to find a new company

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joebewaan@reddit

I’m also a defacto IT person. 90% of the time people’s issues are solved by

Actually reading the error message which is clearly displayed on the screen
Googling / asking a clanker what the deal is

That’s literally it.

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killasrspike@reddit

IT director here... good luck getting people to read.

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kitxhi@reddit

When a customer comes to me with a question outside of the scope of support I provide, and if it's not something I already know, I will honestly say some variant of, "I'm not familiar with that, it's outside of my scope. This is what Google says: ..."

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MrParanoiid@reddit

All millenials are tech support to someone, at least in my country.

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Emeraldstorm3@reddit

Basic computer literacy peaked in the early 2000s, I think. And in any job where computer use is common, I've been stunned by how common it is for most people to barely be able to use it, and a lot of others aren't even that competent. Where I work we've had at least 3 people since 2023 who didn't even know how to login and had to have a step-by-step written guide to do so. Using the mouse was likewise something they had no idea how to do.

How that is not at least caught at the initial on-boarding baffles me.

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Archangel0864@reddit

IT folks are acquired like kittens, they just appear and they are yours.

You are the kitten. Stay cute. Nobody likes grumpy old cats.

Yours truly,

Grumpy Old Cat.

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GeckoOBac@reddit

You are the kitten. Stay cute. Nobody likes grumpy old cats.

I disagree. Get grumpy. Not that you have a choice, comes with the territory, but if you get grumpy immediately you'll last longer.

"Lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch'intrate" - Dante Alighieri

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Geminii27@reddit

Grumpy Cat sounds pretty accurate.

Stalk into a room looking disgruntled. Plod over to the issue in a vaguely affronted manner. Sniff condescendingly at the problem. Pull back and swipe a set of claws at the issue. Done. Go find a warm spot to nap in.

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nuclearusa16120@reddit

If your IT cat gets the zoomies, you better hope you funded a robust backup solution.

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Wadsworth_McStumpy@reddit

Sometimes, being tech support just means that you're able to ignore the ads on Google, so you can fix a formula in a spreadsheet without signing up for a dating site in Korea.

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AshleyJSheridan@reddit

I have found that sometimes Windows doesn't list a program properly in the Start Menu after it's been installed, preferring instead to list the installer I just ran, or search results (who the fuck wants search results in their start menu?!)

So I can see how some users might naturally come to believe that downloading and reinstalling the app every time is the correct way to go.

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GranGurbo@reddit

I find it baffling. Computers have been ubiquitous in offices for over 40 years.

I get people being stupid, what baffles me is that they're still being hired not knowing how to use the tool for their job.

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Geminii27@reddit

There was only a short-ish time period where most home computing devices were desktops.

Schools don't always teach how to use them. Applicants to jobs assume they'll be trained on whatever the employer uses. Employers assume everyone knows how to use a desktop, or they simply don't want to pay for training because, as you say, computers have been around - in business - for 40+ years.

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sebassi@reddit

Home desktops were the norm for 20 years. Mid ninty's they became common place. And lasted until at least the mid 2010's. That's when thing like the ipad pro came about as a valid desktop replacement and windows 10 released which somewhat popularized the Microsoft store and came with smartphone like interfaces.

Which I think is a long time. But on the other hand, it is only one generation and only half of a persons working live. Meaning at most half of the work force will have grown up in the home desktop era.

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No-Aioli4047@reddit

The original emailed instructions showed them those steps, so that is how they do it - search for that email and follow step-by-step. Every single time.

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Icy-Maintenance7041@reddit

the fact that a company large enough to have an internal app that is out of the standard office scope lets users install exe's baffles me...

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Epistaxis@reddit

Everywhere I've worked that could only be an anti-phishing training exercise, except most people wouldn't fall for it because they'd already know from experience that they can't download and install software themselves.

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Honest_Relation4095@reddit

Especially if 50% of the users don't have basic IT literacy.

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Geminii27@reddit

That's every company.

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Gullible_Umpire_3893@reddit (OP)

This part

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alarmologist@reddit

It's like their own Cult of the Machine. They do the rituals, the Ancients told us how the screen illuminates when the Machine Spirits are pleased; they don't need to know why.

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Martiantripod@reddit

I used to work with a woman back in the early 2000s. Every morning she would turn on her computer and it would spend a few minutes doing a system check. I asked her why and she said it always did that. So I watched her close it down that night. She just turned it off. In the days when you had to shut down the computer before you turned it off it was a shock to see. She claimed she'd never been told otherwise.

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Epistaxis@reddit

My mother kept the power bar for her computer in a convenient place under her desk, so she could turn everything off at once by flipping the power bar's switch with her toe. IT hated her.

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LupercaniusAB@reddit

The Elders of the Internet have given you this box.

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_mocbuilder@reddit

Its the Internet, Jen.

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L0pkmnj@reddit

This is how we give reverence to the Omnissiah.

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kirby_422@reddit

One of the advantages of the dumbed down smartphone experience, that when you try to download again, the store just replaces it with an open. With portable non-install exes, I start by checking if its in $PATH, my program folder, then decide rather than search I'll just grab whatever the newest version is, only to see it appended with (1) and it was in my downloads folder the entire time.

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not-yet-ranga@reddit

And what have we learned, kids?