How do other families survive in this technological age?

This week alone, I have spend two evenings assisting two of my children with their technology,  one with an Adware problem on her Mac, and the other whose Hotmail account seemed to have been hijacked, resulting in her being unable to log into it to change her password (and saw her account being used to spam other people)!

This has made me wonder ...

... how does the average family manage to survive in this technology era and deal with tech-problems and questions like those I see in my family!

In our household, I am (not surprisingly) the in-house, unpaid, 'tech support' person that everyone relies on (and is completely dependent on) for any technology-related issues.  

I have lost track of how many devices we have in this home, and a not insignificant part of my week is spend looking after it all.

Regularly I hear someone screeching "Something's wrong with the WiFi, with a definite tone that really says "Mum - fix the WiFi" (as if I have done something to make it not work).  

But what would happen in this household if I was not around?  Where would my family members go for the variety of technology questions and issues needing resolution nearly daily?  My son with his melt-downs at homework time due technology glitches, my daughters with urgent problems like those mentioned above.  What do other families do?  

These days, our households are like small businesses, with the amount of technology they house and need to support - modem, router, a home WiFi network (and perhaps LAN for wired internet) desktop/s, laptops, iPhone and other smartphones, iPads and tablets, Windows, Macs, SmartTVs, Apple TVs, TIVOs, Chromecast, Playstation, etc etc etc.  

Just like in a business, these devices need regular maintenance and support, and backups of important data stored on devices must be done to avoid loss of valuable digital data (for example,  precious family photos and kids assignments, projects and study notes).

A business would usually have some sort of IT support - either in-house IT staff, or outsourced to a service provider - to look after its myriad of technology devices.

Who manages all of this technology in your household?

In many families I know that it left to the younger members of the household to become the 'IT Support' person for the family.  Often this is a primary school aged child.  

I worry that, in many households, this means that the child is virtually the 'keeper of the keys' for the home's technology and the online world to which it connects.

This can be especially prevalent in households where technology has 'appeared' in the house due to school requirements - where parents don't necessarily even use the technology that the kids use, so are not familiar with it (or perhaps are not really familiar with any form of technology).

If you find yourself needing help with your home technology - if you need someone to be your 'in-home IT support' person - don't forget that iTandCoffee in Camberwell is here to help.  Just call 1300 885 420.