Tech Support Frustrations

Having served a year as a Branner RCC as well as many years as the family techie, I can totally empathize with the author of this great article on Slashdot. Teaching my dad how to copy a VCD or do channel auto-tuning on our new TV is like trying to make a full-court shot upside down. Trying to translate nonsensical tech words like "Desktop" or "Dialog Box" into Chinese just makes it an even more frustrating experience. Sometimes I wish I can VNC (software that allows one to remotely control another computer) to their computer and just do what my parents need to have done instead of spending an hour trying to explain to them what to do over the phone.

The thing that's worse than the frustration of it all is the guilt I feel afterwards. I feel like such an asshole for being impatient with the parents. I was so much more patient and understanding when I was taking care of clueless freshmen, why can't I be nicer to my own parents? I think part of the reason is that I have no idea if what they are doing on the computer is what I'm actually telling them to do. Also, sometimes I don't even know if we have the same goals in mind. I feel like I have almost no control in this whole process, whereas in Branner I can just go to some kid's computer and fiddle around with it until it worked.