Please do your part to stop Geek Abuse.
Don't get me wrong. This is really a post about love. It is about how people mistreat and abuse the good natured computer geeks of the world, and how you as a responsible adult can stop the madness and show true love to that special geeky computer guy in your life, as well as become a better person in the process.
Although it is not well known publicly, It is very well known in professional 'computer geek' circles that the most annoying and disrespectful thing a person can do at any time is say "you can just fix my computer, right?" after the person in question finds out that the Geek does in fact know a thing or two about what most simply consider "The Magick Box" that they just broke. Sure we may be naturally amicable and easy going group, and sure we may even smile and offer to "take a look at it sometime" before either changing the subject immediatly, or just getting to work on the given computer because we see no other choice but to at least try to help, because most of us are by nature good people who like to help others and spread good vibes.
But the fact is, computer geeks who do not go into tech support by choice (And thats 99.9% of them) absolutely hate it when people automatically assume that the years of dedication, technical training, long hours, abstract data assimilation, and pure force of will through years of experience and hard work where all done for nothing more then to help you fix the computer You Broke due to Your Own Ignorance, Your Own Apathy, and yes even even Your Own Idiocy.
It may sound harsh - and this is exactly why most geeks will not admit this, we do not want to offend you - but the fact is, it is disrespectful for you to assume that because somebody else knows more then you do about your computer that they are perfectly willing to let you continue damaging it while they are asked to "make it all better" so that you can get the same exact computer virus or malware the next day because you did the same exact thing that broke the computer in the first place *again* since you had no real reason to learn not to as long as the geek in your life agrees to help you.
And this is terribly disrespectful, unloving, uncaring, and above all simply GEEK ABUSE! Thats right, GEEK ABUSE. This is EXACTLY what you are going by refusing to to even attempt to learn about what went wrong with your computer, instead asking somebody else to deal with the pain and boredom of trying to fix your problems when in reality YOU should be the one that deals with the fact that you where stupid enough to get the exact same virus/malware the 14th time in as many days, did not install the free anti-virus software at the link you where given, or take the helpful advise given to you about using Firefox instead of Internet Explorer as a more secure default web browser. Like it or not, YOU are the one that should spend the time away from doing things you want to do in life to search for and attempt to fix YOUR mistake, not the geek who will get drafted into doing so anyway because they are good people and pity your stupidity enough to not only try to help, but not tell you to your face what they really think of the entire situation. If that means your computer is unusable for weeks at a time, then you deserve it because it is not only the only way you will learn, it is also the way that the Geek learned themselves.
The fact is, by asking the computer geek in your life to do the work for you, you are really just saying to them "I do not know, I do not want to know, my time is more valuable then yours, and I do not care about you or respect you at all so I'm just going to have you do the work I cant be bothered to do or take the time to learn about while I stay ignorant and have no pain response to learn that doing what I did was a bad thing."
And that is the point; Unless you get burned, you are never going to learn that the stove top is hot. The geeks of the world know this, so at one point they had to turn on the stove and crawl inside of it on purpose in order to learn better how everything works, because they wanted to learn. If you are not interested in learning about the computer, if the thought of turning on the stove top and placing your hard on the red hot burner (of knowledge, figuratively speaking) scares you, please for the love of any geeks you may know, do not use one. I know this sounds cruel, but the fact is there was once a time that you had to have at least an interest in getting a PHD in computer science or electrical engineering to even *USE* a computer. And then the internet was created by the American military, and you needed at least a PHD as academic proof of your intelligence level to access it. You had to be OK with making mistakes, you had to get past your fear of learning.
And the great thing is, this is no longer the case. You are no longer required to go through 8 years of higher education or crawl through a meat grinder to learn some of the advanced topics of computer science. Just type the words "stack frame", "call stack", "function pointer", "data structure", "C programming language", or the exact text of the strange and cryptic error message you are getting into google and suddenly you can read the exact same thing as the geeks and EDUCATE YOURSELF instead of wasting time of others and treating them like the worthless little slave so many people seem to think geeks are because - ironically - we know more.
So if you love your geek, please do not ask them to fix your computer for you. Instead, ask them to help you learn how to fix your own computer.
WARNING: If you are dating a geek, be careful about asking to learn as your education may end up getting interrupted by sudden, spontaneous, hot sex. Thats right, geeks will statistically find there partners interest in self education of computer science to be sexually stimulating, so not only are you helping yourself by being interested in learning about how to fix your computer, you are helping your relationship become stronger. You have been warned. ;)
Although it is not well known publicly, It is very well known in professional 'computer geek' circles that the most annoying and disrespectful thing a person can do at any time is say "you can just fix my computer, right?" after the person in question finds out that the Geek does in fact know a thing or two about what most simply consider "The Magick Box" that they just broke. Sure we may be naturally amicable and easy going group, and sure we may even smile and offer to "take a look at it sometime" before either changing the subject immediatly, or just getting to work on the given computer because we see no other choice but to at least try to help, because most of us are by nature good people who like to help others and spread good vibes.
But the fact is, computer geeks who do not go into tech support by choice (And thats 99.9% of them) absolutely hate it when people automatically assume that the years of dedication, technical training, long hours, abstract data assimilation, and pure force of will through years of experience and hard work where all done for nothing more then to help you fix the computer You Broke due to Your Own Ignorance, Your Own Apathy, and yes even even Your Own Idiocy.
It may sound harsh - and this is exactly why most geeks will not admit this, we do not want to offend you - but the fact is, it is disrespectful for you to assume that because somebody else knows more then you do about your computer that they are perfectly willing to let you continue damaging it while they are asked to "make it all better" so that you can get the same exact computer virus or malware the next day because you did the same exact thing that broke the computer in the first place *again* since you had no real reason to learn not to as long as the geek in your life agrees to help you.
And this is terribly disrespectful, unloving, uncaring, and above all simply GEEK ABUSE! Thats right, GEEK ABUSE. This is EXACTLY what you are going by refusing to to even attempt to learn about what went wrong with your computer, instead asking somebody else to deal with the pain and boredom of trying to fix your problems when in reality YOU should be the one that deals with the fact that you where stupid enough to get the exact same virus/malware the 14th time in as many days, did not install the free anti-virus software at the link you where given, or take the helpful advise given to you about using Firefox instead of Internet Explorer as a more secure default web browser. Like it or not, YOU are the one that should spend the time away from doing things you want to do in life to search for and attempt to fix YOUR mistake, not the geek who will get drafted into doing so anyway because they are good people and pity your stupidity enough to not only try to help, but not tell you to your face what they really think of the entire situation. If that means your computer is unusable for weeks at a time, then you deserve it because it is not only the only way you will learn, it is also the way that the Geek learned themselves.
The fact is, by asking the computer geek in your life to do the work for you, you are really just saying to them "I do not know, I do not want to know, my time is more valuable then yours, and I do not care about you or respect you at all so I'm just going to have you do the work I cant be bothered to do or take the time to learn about while I stay ignorant and have no pain response to learn that doing what I did was a bad thing."
And that is the point; Unless you get burned, you are never going to learn that the stove top is hot. The geeks of the world know this, so at one point they had to turn on the stove and crawl inside of it on purpose in order to learn better how everything works, because they wanted to learn. If you are not interested in learning about the computer, if the thought of turning on the stove top and placing your hard on the red hot burner (of knowledge, figuratively speaking) scares you, please for the love of any geeks you may know, do not use one. I know this sounds cruel, but the fact is there was once a time that you had to have at least an interest in getting a PHD in computer science or electrical engineering to even *USE* a computer. And then the internet was created by the American military, and you needed at least a PHD as academic proof of your intelligence level to access it. You had to be OK with making mistakes, you had to get past your fear of learning.
And the great thing is, this is no longer the case. You are no longer required to go through 8 years of higher education or crawl through a meat grinder to learn some of the advanced topics of computer science. Just type the words "stack frame", "call stack", "function pointer", "data structure", "C programming language", or the exact text of the strange and cryptic error message you are getting into google and suddenly you can read the exact same thing as the geeks and EDUCATE YOURSELF instead of wasting time of others and treating them like the worthless little slave so many people seem to think geeks are because - ironically - we know more.
So if you love your geek, please do not ask them to fix your computer for you. Instead, ask them to help you learn how to fix your own computer.
WARNING: If you are dating a geek, be careful about asking to learn as your education may end up getting interrupted by sudden, spontaneous, hot sex. Thats right, geeks will statistically find there partners interest in self education of computer science to be sexually stimulating, so not only are you helping yourself by being interested in learning about how to fix your computer, you are helping your relationship become stronger. You have been warned. ;)