The disconnect between humans and technology

My job helps me to remain humble. I say this because I know that while I might appear to be a genius with computers and technology in general I am surrounded with folks who are geniuses in their own respective fields. The humility comes in when I get silly questions or complaints that are seemingly easy for me to figure out. I have to remember that I have been doing this sort of thing for 20 years and that my experience makes those easy things easy. I am sure that 20 years ago when I started working in the I.T. industry that a lot of things were not easy and that I owe my knowledge and experience to many mentors along the way.

Now , with all of that said, I have to say something else. Computers today are not that difficult to operate. The key thing is that you can not be afraid of it. Fear of the unknown is normal but if you belly up to the beast so to speak and dive in you will find that running your pc is not all that difficult. Think of it this way if you will. How do you approach problems in your every day life or job? You probably have a logical thought process that you follow to deduce what you need in order to get through the day. Your computer is no different. You have to approach your computer with the attitude of " I can do it!!" As an I.T. professional I have no problem with someone coming to me and saying "I do not know how to do this" or "I do not understand what this means". That is my job, to help you through those moments and to explain to you what this or that means and then to fix it to where you can continue on with your day. The thing that I do not want to hear and makes my job difficult is "I do not understand why this thing is broken and futher more I do not care, just fix it".

Some folks have the attitude that technology should just work and they get angry when someone can not just wave a magical wand and make their lives stress free when it comes to their personal computer. That attitude in and of itself is the disconnect between humans and computers. In my mind my job is to fix those things (hardware) that you (the end user) should not have to be worried about and to train you on how to use the software that you use to get your job done. My encouragement to you is that if your attitude is positive and you want to learn how to use your computer then my job as the I.T. professional is so much easier. When you are happy then I am happy. I like solving problems and I love seeing folks like you who are happily sitting at your desk banging away at the keyboard and being productive. I like being able to come by your desk or office and say howdy and not have to always be talking about a computer problem.

Just the other day I went to one of our satellite offices with a list of pc issues to resolve which I did while I was doing Windows Updates. I got to one of the lists and this person had said that the pc speakers on the desk have not worked since the pc was installed. I think the pc was installed two or three years ago. I started to get under the desk to trace the speaker wire to make sure it was plugged into the green audio out plug when I noticed that the power light for the speakers was not on. I reached over and turned on the speakers and guess what? My magic wand was out and I sprinkled power dust on those speakers and they magically began to produce music. LOL

Currently I am the I.T. manager for a company that does resort rentals on the East Coast. I have one main office to support and two satellite offices. That averages out to about 45 people and 50 pc's and five servers. I stay very busy but I like my job. I am thankful that I have a full time job that provides me with a salary and benefits for me and my family. I can remember the days not too long ago where I was working two and three jobs just to put food on the table thanks to the I.T. industry taking a nose after the September 11th incident. There are plenty of folks out there who are not as fortunate as myself and I remember that on a daily basis.