to think every home now needs a professional IT manager?

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Does anyone else feel like they're drowning in computer-based chaos? I'm relatively computer literate but feel like I can't keep up and just don't have the time to. Am I alone in this?

Having just spent the last two hours trying to work out how to install a minecraft mod... I can only say YES!

for you Mama

I've already said to DH that I hope his life insurance will pay for an IT manager in the event of his death as he's set up such complex systems in the house that even though I'm quite computer literate I find the whole thing quite baffling.

Fortunately I have my DH as technical support, which is good as I am useless with Cmputers/ routers/ Playstations etc. I am always saying to my dh god forbid I ever end up without him as I would never cope. he works in IT support so can usually sort things out.

KISS.

Yes. In my case I bred my own, and am wondering what will happen when they leave home. Pitying visits, I suppose? Or just exasperated phone calls?

My DD has had an iPhone for a few weeks and now thinks she is an IT expert. Really irritating

Couldn't agree more OP!

I was just trying to give phone support to my 75-year-old dad who obediently did what Mocrosoft told him to do and downloaded Windows 10, now he can only read not write emails and his computer can't see the printer. Couldn't fix it, he's got a friend coming round to look at it. The level of complexity in standard home systems just beggars belief.

Like you OP I am fairly competent and am the best in the house but it's so time consuming and most of the home IT products are not as robust as they should be. They should just work... But they rarely do. And I don't count Minecraft mods in that, they are developer-level advanced stuff IMO. Just stuff like Windows, security (we had one month where three lots of £80 came out unexpectedly, each from different security companies who we had forgotten we had subscribed to but we can't manage to consolidate on one security package across all the machines) and don't get me started on updating bloody iPads so they can add stupid search functions you don't want but slow down the browser so much as to make it unusable.

Didn't realise I was so annoyed about this :) YADNBU!

Very good to know I'm not alone.

Sticky, I also am the most "expert" of us () and feel totally out of my depth.

How about every street gets a resident IT consultant? I'd happily pay extra taxes for it....

All the computers here work fine.

Except the ones that have been contaminated with Windoze, of course. (Actually I have one that's so badly buggered up the only thing to be done with it seems to be to hose the drive and install Linux).

We have kids. This seems (so far) to be a workable solution. We are buggered though when they leave home.

OMG I could've written that! DH is a complete technophobe and compared to him I look relatively clued up but I'm so not!

Isn't this what children are for?

Yeah, I used to work in IT support myself, and I still can't be arsed keeping up with it. Fortunately my partner can, or we'd be screwed.

Yanbu. My laptop and phone are cobbled together and rarely updated. My phone doesn't have the storage to update but it keeps telling me to do it. I need a couple of days to back everything up, transfer pics and generally clear it all up.

My DH is an IT consultant - quite often when he's wrestling with some home computer related issue I do wonder how people with out a Mr Hopping manage.
Mind you, given our numerous laptops, desk tops, tablets and Raspberry Pi's I also wonder if he complicates things unnecessarily.

Yadnbu!

Just lost my main IT support to Uni. Two more trainees at home, though.

Yes. My DH is a pro at this and I deeply resent the amount of power he has in the house now.

That sounds unhinged but it's true

It is all too difficult for your average middle aged bod at home, not as intuitive as it should be and rather scary how easily you can get left behind and feel alienated.

Thank god DH works in IT, because I haven't got a clue now. It makes me feel like some sort of eejit little woman who has to run to a man to solve her problems.

I lived by myself for 16 years and managed perfectly well with programming new TVs and videos with the 5 channels (remember how you had to do that manually?) and learning to set the video recorder, but then bloody COMPUTERS were invented . I can use them perfectly well, until something goes wrong.

OP, you're right, they're ridiculously complicated for the 'average' person. Or am I just turning into my grandma?

Even grandmas need to be able to cope with IT, because everyone is having to become more dependent on it. You can't do anything without having to consult a website for more details.

It's so true - DH has set up such a complex network around the house, with restricted access for the dc, unrestricted for the grown ups - it's crazy and I have no hope of understanding it ever.

I've told him he needs to train up ds1, so that at least someone else on the planet knows how it all works.