When it comes to family gatherings, the tech person is always in demand. Whether you’re the one who can control the screens in your living room or the one who has to keep up with social media updates, technology is a big part of how you’ll be able to handle these events. Here are a few tips on how to survive being the “tech person” at family gatherings:
- Make sure your devices are charged. If you have any devices that need to be used during a gathering, make sure they are fully charged before you arrive. This will help you stay connected and organized while everyone is around.
- Keep your devices safe. If there are any risks associated with using technology at a gathering, make sure to discuss those with your friends and family members ahead of time. This way, everyone knows what they need to be aware of and can plan for potential issues.
- Be prepared for questions from others about your use of technology. It’s natural for people to ask about what you’re using and why it’s important, but don’t let this turn into an issue. Answer questions honestly and calmly – there will likely be other ways for people to get information they need without having to ask you directly.
- Use apps that are designed specifically for family gatherings – like FamilyTime or GroupMe – so that everyone can easily connect and stay organized while participating in the festivities.
Set Some Boundaries
It’s important to be clear and direct with your family about your boundaries. Let them know that you are willing to help with technology issues, but that you also have other responsibilities and commitments that you need to prioritize.
You can set limits on the amount of time you are available to help with technology issues. For example, you could offer to help for a set amount of time each day or each visit. If you can’t get the fix done in that time frame, it will have to wait.
Make It a Teachable Moment
The worst part of being stuck as the family tech support is that they all go off to eat turkey, drink egg nog, or gripe around the Festivus pole while you’re stuck in a stuffy study expunging the nastiest malware known to man or beast.
If you’re going to do it, make sure you don’t do it alone! Insist you’ll help if the person in question sits with you throughout the entire process, while you explain exactly what you’re doing and why.
RELATED: The Complete Guide to Giving Better Family Tech Support
Let’s be honest, most troubleshooting these days involves Googling your problem on a smartphone and following a set of instructions, so if you can at least teach someone how to do that, you’re more than halfway there. May we humbly suggest bookmarking this very website on your family member’s browser? They’re in good hands with us, you deserve a break.
Quid Pro Quo
There’s no such thing as a free lunch. If you’re the “tech” person in the family, then the other members must have their own skill sets, right? How about some help with filing your taxes from your accountant aunt? Your dad’s a mechanic, right? A free oil change is definitely worth helping him change his Android font back to something legible.
Give Tech Support Vouchers as Gifts
If your technology skills are being requested during a holiday or observance that involves giving gifts, then you might as well make some of your actual gifts the tech support you were going to provide anyway.
You can either print out your own tech support vouchers or spend real money on buying technical support for someone who needs it. For example, Best Buy has the Totaltech plan at $199.99 a year. A service that provides tech support for any device in someone’s house, no matter where they bought it.
Another angle on this idea is to just buy everyone Dummies guides or something similar. It’s how a lot of us got started in the tech-guru business after all.
Defer Helping Until Later
It’s not that you don’t want to help; it’s just that this is a holiday. You should be relaxing and preparing for another year of fixing your own tech problems. So why not promise to defer your help until after everyone is back on the clock?
These days we have Skype, Zoom, and many other ways to keep in touch and help people out remotely. So make a date for any issues that aren’t mission-critical, but can’t also be sorted out in 30 seconds.
Be Honest If You Don’t Know
At the risk of ruining your reputation as an omniscient tech messiah among friends and family, just say you don’t know how to fix a particular problem. No one can reasonably expect one person to know how to fix every tech problem (well, maybe our editors do sometimes, but we digress), so there’s no shame in pleading ignorance. If it’s going to be something that you have to research at length and spend hours troubleshooting, just let the person understand that just because you know a lot about laptops, doesn’t mean you’re a wizard with smart speakers or Apple TVs!
