Mid 80s-late 90s: Didn’t we call who we now refer to as techs “techies”?

[-]

14ANH2817@reddit

Back then, we thought of IT support as a friend or family member, but many of us who served that role backed away from it because it was too much doing free work for people who thought we should do it for them because it was our hobby.

Also, at this point "tech" is in and often the substance of everything, so IT workers are not just a group of people who are basically interchangeable. I administer certain web-based technologies in my job and play video games in my spare time, but I know absolutely nothing about how your TV and sound bar work, or how to get your particular wifi configs to work with your particular phone.

[-]

Tough_Arm_2454@reddit

Programmer developer engineer. Calling a developer a programmer became a huge insult.

[-]

pjhk75@reddit

"Techies" was what we called the folks who did lighting, sets, sound and stuff for our theatrical productions. I never used the term for tech support folks.

[-]

Temporary-Library597@reddit

You are indeed misremembering.

[-]

insecurecharm@reddit

No.

[-]

Intrepid_Practice956@reddit

I wonder if the was a subconscious (or conscious) link between "techies" and "trekkies" and they both recoiled :)

[-]

EnjoyingTheRide-0606@reddit

I never knew of tech support until late 90’s when I landed a position at HP.

[-]

Alewort@reddit

No, techies is the name for technical theater crew, not technicians.

[-]

madtownjeff@reddit

To be fair they are technicians, techie was the borderline affectionate/dimissive nickname.

[-]

Actually_me_1922@reddit

This is the right answer! (Former techie here.)

[-]

toqer@reddit

gif

[-]

MisterJasonMan@reddit

In my recollection, the term "techie" always referred to a person that was known to have good tech skills, whether employed in the field or not. Did you get grandma's printer to work? congrats, you're a techie. I always called the support desk mostly "IT" (as in , shit, gotta call IT, the printer isn't working)

[-]

GirlStiletto@reddit

This might have been how it was where you worked, but I never heard the tech experts called "techies".

[-]

Flaky-Debate-833@reddit

gif

[-]

Sufficient_Stop8381@reddit

We called them nerds

[-]

squeakybeak@reddit

And geeks

[-]

timberwolf0122@reddit

Now who’s laughing ahhhahhahahahahahahaha

[-]

squeakybeak@reddit

The billionaire geeks? Yeah..

[-]

timberwolf0122@reddit

Even use regular nerds who got beaten up a lot aren’t doing too bad.

[-]

Intrepid_Practice956@reddit

Yes, but at my college it was more for us a/v people who were videotaping the play, not so much the computer people.

[-]

NikitaKhruiseship@reddit

Same in my high school’s drama club but also for those of us hanging lights and running the board. Fun times!

[-]

abbot_x@reddit

Yes, the “techies” in the context of high school plays to me are the people who built the sets and props, sewed the costumes, ran lights and sound, moved sets and props between acts, created special effects, etc. That was known as the “technical theater” track and attracted kids who liked theater as well as working with their hands but weren’t as much into acting. That term is still used as far as I know.

[-]

rmhoman@reddit

No that term is quite dated and disliked. It became demeaning then derogatory in the late 90s early 2000s. Tech, technician, run crew or backstage crew is preferered. Source: 30yrs theater experience.

[-]

abbot_x@reddit

Sorry I meant “technical theater” is still used. It’s one of the tracks at the public arts magnet in my city. I don’t think the kids in that program are called “techies” today, at least not officially or even commonly by other kids. The guys in my D&D group ca. 1990 did call themselves “techies.”

[-]

rmhoman@reddit

Oh yeah it is still thriving. And has become very still labor with automation, LEDs and special effects.

[-]

SergeantBeavis@reddit

I remember specifically being called a nerd..

Now, as I look upon the pauper jocks of this world, I wear it as a badge of honor.

[-]

JonnyCanuck71@reddit

Brad. Brads usually knew how to fix things. Most offices had a guy named Brad

[-]

yanknga@reddit

I still do.

[-]

damageddude@reddit

In my company it was IT or the helpless desk

[-]

RemyJe@reddit

No?

[-]

MoonageDayscream@reddit

Probably a cultural artifact. We did not have the ability to summon corporate response before the breakup of Ma Bell.

[-]

2dogs0cats@reddit

(In my experience) Mid 80's through to mid 90's referring to a techie was industrial automation and control, not really office or data processing.

Mid 90's onwards the automation and control nerds were either hands on and looked upon as trades, or design specialists and therefore a different type of nerd, but techie became a special nerd that knew about overclocking a 386DX for no practical purpose, or fixing a pretty girls printer because they wanted to flex more than their personal hygiene allows.

"Watch me reconfigure your telepresence with no documented changes so it doesn't work for anyone else, and then look at you like you are all the idiots because it doesn't launch for a board meeting. I'm a techie and you can't operate without me. Everyone is stupid except for me."

Techies suck, I was one. I trained an new generation, and even worse, I was allowed to breed. I have launched kids who deliberately pursued Infosec as a career. I'm disgusted.

[-]