Ask Tech Effect: Why Does Technology Break?

Sunday February 19, 2017

Technology is amazing and allows humanity to perform tasks that they normally wouldn’t be capable of. You can now do things today that would have been called magic or lies a few years ago.

Hardware and software are the two fronts where technology is developing very quickly, providing the workforce with new tools and capabilities on a daily basis.

However, as with all tools, occasionally a tool breaks and doesn’t work as well as it used to. Sometimes there is an error with the hardware, or software runs into a bug.

It’s a frustrating time, and no one likes seeing their hard-earned tools not work the way that you would like.

This leads to people asking: “Why did you make something that breaks?”

We’ve already talked about how fragile technology has been, and why technology struggles to keep up with the expectations of customers.

But I think the question on everyone’s mind is “Why do I have to keep calling IT support for technology that they tell me they can maintain?”

Business owners hire IT support (internal and/or external) because these are the people who claim to fix technology and ensure that there’s someone always looking after it.

There’s nothing wrong with that thought, but it doesn’t take into account a lot of factors that IT support can’t predict or prevent.

Technology is helping explore new frontiers, while strengthening the frontiers we have already explored. But sometimes, problems come when you least expect it, which can severely impact your operations.

That is not related to a lack of monitoring or promises of invulnerability. Technology breaks down because unseen problems occur, and it isn’t possible to predict everything that can happen.

What Do You Mean Technology Breaks?

Technology runs into problems for a variety of reasons. The most common reason a problem happens is that the user attempts to use technology and unintentionally stumbles upon an area that technology isn’t understanding correctly.

You’ve seen this happen before, when your computer runs slowly because you’ve loaded a lot of information onto a spreadsheet, or when you receive an error even though your actions haven’t changed since the day you started using technology.

Technology is created by programmers to carry out specific tasks given specific inputs. However, as everyone in the world is different, it is almost impossible to predict what a user is going to do.

There may be inputs that a programmer wouldn’t expect, such as loading more than one task. A user may delete some things that they feel are unnecessary, when they are actually important to the technology they are using.

It’s hard to predict what a user will do, because everyone treats technology differently, and programmers can’t create technology and predict every single action that people can do.

Even if you have IT support, user actions cannot be predicted. That’s why an error can pop up in software and IT support can’t prevent that.

It’s not a matter of incompetence, but outside of hand-holding and teaching you what to do every few seconds, there’s not much an expert can do to prevent technology from encountering problems.

If the above scenario sounds patronizing, that’s because it is. IT support would rather focus on keeping technology protected and ensuring that your company is at the forefront of technological prowess. The staff isn’t able to keep watching over users like they are children.

On the other side, you probably wouldn’t appreciate an IT expert monitoring everything that you’re doing. You would feel annoyed, frustrated and would rather work with someone else. Although you’d have someone who could help you if technology broke, you’d hate it after a while.

Technology is going to break, but that doesn’t have to be a bad thing. Understand that it’s something that happens, and you will be in a better position to fix it.

But I Don’t Want Technology To Break, I Want It To Be Perfect!

Of course, people spend their hard-earned money on technology, so they want it to be the pinnacle of perfection. They want to see no problems, and they want their IT support to make sure nothing happens to it.

Unfortunately, that’s not how things work.

Technology runs into an obsolescence problem after time passes. That’s why we’re not using the same technology as before, and why computers are using different operating systems than the ones we have seen in the past.

Old technology struggles to keep up with the changing demands of the workplace. That’s why experts recommend that people upgrade their technology as soon as they can or as soon as they believe it is feasible.

It might sound like people are trying to earn more money (let’s be honest though, who isn’t?) but the truth is that old technology was built to meet the demands of the times. As times change, new software is being created, hardware has to adapt as well.

Older software and operating systems won’t be able to take advantage of newer hardware, and in some cases they won’t be compatible with hardware. That can seriously impact performance and even cause unforeseen problems.

After a while, IT support will tell you to upgrade your software. While the choice will still ultimately rest with the user and the company, just as industries phased out old trends in favour of new trends, old technology needs to be replaced with new technology.

Otherwise, problems will keep happening, technology will keep breaking, and everyone will be greatly dissatisfied.

Everyone understands the value of money, and everyone understands that it is very precious. You want every bit of your dollar to go the distance. But that distance will be reached, and not everything that is wonderful will last.

You need to embrace that technology can get old and that it won’t be perfect. If you do, everything will be that much easier to deal with, as IT support can convince you that there is a solution.

Technology Is Here To Help, But Can Have A Bad Day

There’s no way that technology can be 100% ready for every situation. Life changes so quickly that technology is doing all it can just to keep up.

But if you understand that technology can have a bad day and sometimes breaks, you can get help that much quicker.

You just need to tell IT support what’s wrong, and then get the feedback you need to fix it and stop it from happening again.

We hope you enjoyed this article! If you liked it, share it with your friends and family, and follow us on Facebook, on Twitter @mspblueshift and on LinkedIn! Call us at 1300 501 677 for a look at your IT today!

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Craig Boyle

MSP Blueshift supports a range of different businesses who depend on their technology to deliver goods and services to their clients. From architects to retail chains, we’re passionate about streamlining IT systems and processes to move business forward.

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