Blue screen of death - credit: Microsoft
I’ve been doing IT work ever since I was 13 (I’m 25 now). I’ve fixed my friend’s computers, my school’s computers, computers in my office and even built my own. I’ve developed blogs for several of my peers, taught many friends/associates the basics of Adobe Photoshop, Ableton Live, Wordpress and tons of other useful applications.
Okay, you get the idea, (just trying to quantify my geekness) and my subscribers already know – I’m a go-to guy for tech advice (in addition to marketing advice).
Over the years, I’ve seen my fair share of mistakes users make – nothing wrong with that, not everyone is as into this as we are.
But today I got to thinking – many of you reading my blog are also tech gurus and may have noticed similar mistakes/user errors as I do. I thought it’d be fun to post up a list of 50 mistakes I notice frequently from non-geeks using computers/the web/other technology. Feel free to add some of your own in the comments, there are certainly plenty I’m missing.
Here are 50 common mistakes non-geeks make with computers/the web (in no particular order):
1. Typing web addresses into the Google search bar instead of the web address bar.
2. Double clicking on links within websites (a single click works just fine).
3. Trying to turn a computer on that isn’t plugged in (yes, I’ve actually seen this).
4. Sending images that are 1, 2, 3, 4 or even 5MB+ without scaling them down.
5. Hitting “reply all” on a message sent to multiple people, when replying with something relevant to only one person.
6. Accidentally replying to all on a message someone was bcc’d on.
7. Sending an email to the wrong person by not paying attention to Outlook’s auto-complete.
8. Dragging an entire folder into another folder by accident, and then wondering where it went.
9. Installing a ton of different “freeware” applications that auto-start when the person boots their computer – then wondering why it’s slow.
10. Using any other search engine other than Google (why?).
11. Using AOL email (yup, that counts as a mistake).
12. Using any free web-based email service besides Gmail.
13. Losing toolbars in MS Word, Excel or Outlook and not realizing how simple it is to get them back.
14. Calling Google “The Google” .
15. Not realizing pretty much everything you put on the web is public.
16. Not saving often (every single person who produces music knows to save frequently).
17. Accepting obviously bogus spam offers.
18. Using Internet Explorer.
19. Getting upset by something written on the web about you/your religion/insert anything else controversial here.
20. Posting inappropriate photos of yourself to the web (it’s almost like saying: dear future self: good luck landing that next job after they see this!).
21. Not realizing that the “overtype” function is on in MS Word.
22. Not accepting track changes in MS Word before making a document public.
23. Hitting send/receive in Outlook repeatedly and expecting that to fix the issue.
24. Creating incorrect excel formulas (don’t even try to do these unless you know how).
25. Replying to something in all caps.
26. Still using that “cute” email address you made when you were 17 in a professional setting (ie – AngelGirl17@aol.com or something like that).
27. Creating bloated, disorganized .coms.
28. Losing the menu bar in windows and/or accidently moving it to the side, top or bottom of the screen (this one makes me laugh every time).
29. Not putting titles on documents – I’ve seen peoples desktops littered with “New Document 1, New Document 2, New Document 3, etc.” How can you possibly find anything like this?
30. Using language/web terms you don’t understand or feigning expertise at something technical (web gurus will see through you pretty quickly and certainly call you out).
31. Not uninstalling unneeded/unused programs that come bundled with windows.
32. Having 20 applications startup automatically when you boot your PC.
33. Running a system in ultra-high resolution on a small screen, or ultra-low resolution on a large screen.
34. Forwarding me a blatantly obvious hoax via email. Real news is not distributed via email, especially one that you were part of a CC with 50 other people’s names you’ve never heard of. And, you’re not going to have bad luck for 7 years if you don’t forward the message to all of your friends. Seriously, don’t look dumb – and don’t send email forwards that are clearly spam. Some common sense here could go a long way to stopping these altogether.
35. Asking your computer expert friend for advice on something without Googling it first. Chances are your question has already been answered on the web. Be intrepid, try finding the information yourself before taking someone’s time.
36. CC’ing people on emails that have nothing to do with them.
37. Trying to recall an Outlook message – don’t bother, we’re just going to read it extra carefully if you do that.
38. Sending your web geek friend a link to –insert 5 year old viral video here-. Come on, we’re probably the one who sent it to you years ago in the first place (and you didn’t bother to look then, but just discovered it now).
39. Create a .com thinking you’re going to make millions – you’re not.
40. Paying for links/traffic pyramid schemes – don’t ever use these, they don’t work.
41. Paying an “expert” $99.99 for his “10 AdSense secrets” on how he makes $100,000 a month through Google.
42. Clicking on any advertisement on MySpace.
43. Paying someone else to create a domain that you intend to make money off of / perhaps one day live off of – you should start it yourself if you’re serious and learn along the way. No one else will ever devote the amount of effort you will.
44. Starting a blog without follow through (there are far more deserted blogs than active blogs these days).
45. Thinking that building traffic to a .com is easy – it’s not, its pretty hard work, and it takes a significant time commitment.
46. Blogging purely for money – don’t do this, ever. If you’re not absolutely passionate about what you’re writing, you will never be able to persevere.
47. Quitting your blog too early. You have to lean into the blogging dip and push through it. Victory is only for those who stick with it.
48. Paying someone hundreds of dollars an hour to make small text tweaks to your .com. Learn your CMS and basic HTML and do it yourself – it’s actually not that difficult.
49. Forgetting an email attachment when sending a message.
50. Going cheap on networking gear – don’t skimp here, you’ll eventually have to replace it…
Bonus: here’s a (kind of) related video with some great windows error messages:
Feel free to add some common mistakes you notice below - this list is certainly incomplete, these were just the first computer/web/tech mistakes to come to mind.
Related articles from The Future Buzz:
50 Viral Images (And How They Spread)
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100 Shared Viewpoints, Commonalities and Experiences of Bloggers
Related articles from around the web:
Top 7 Blog Mistakes To Avoid (David Airey)
20 comments so far
Not actually a mistake but I think probably what made me laugh most regarding use of Internet: A few years ago my dad asked me if I could look something up on the UK Internet. I thought it was cute. Great list.
August 14th, 2008Some of these made me laugh so much. I am similar to you and get called on for the slightest tech problems. The losing the word toolbar is a common classic that I quite enjoy remedying as you can do it so quickly they hardly even notice!
Also the moving of the taskbar - I mean it’s so simple but gets so many people!
Excellent work!
August 14th, 2008I use hotmail, damn. What annoys me is when someone misses out the subject line of the email off and ends up with the first line of the email as the subject line. The amount of emails at work I get with ‘Hey. Right, well blah blah blah blah’ drives me nuts.
August 14th, 2008You lost the main error: they use Windows.
August 14th, 2008Regarding: 18. Using Internet Explorer. I don’t think that using IE is as much as the crime as developers who develop sites that ONLY run/display correctly in IE.
August 14th, 2008I forgot another one, embedding images within a Microsoft Word document instead of attaching them as separate files! Nightmare when you’re trying to put together marketing material.
August 14th, 2008“Running a system in ultra-high resolution on a small screen, or ultra-low resolution on a large screen”
The latter is dumb, the former isn’t necessarily, provided you’re using an operating system and applications with decent font handling (i.e. probably not windoze crap, at least not before vista). You should always use the resolution that matches the physical dots of the display (assuming modern LCD-type display with ordered dots).
Basically, a 10 point font should always be 10 physical points in size, a higher resolution SHOULD just make it sharper. (Older systems get this horribly wrong, often just assuming the resolution of the display is 75,96,100 or 120 DPI, which means that fonts that SHOULD be the same physical size are small at high resolution and large at low resolution, when they should just be more detailed at high resolution).
August 14th, 2008Haha, these are great! Sadly, I think you’ve just described the actions of the majority of web/computer users.
August 14th, 2008“Clicking on any advertisement on MySpace.”
LOL.
August 14th, 2008As a non-geek geek here (no techie by any stretch but not guilty of any of the 50 listed above), I’d like to add one to the list:
Adding those stupid in-text ads (Kontera’s Contentlink) to your Web content. No, you’re not going to make any real money at it. You’re just going to look like a clueless money-grubber and chase me away from your site.
August 15th, 2008Funny list Adam. Ok, I’ve actually committed a few of these like moving one folder into another accidentally, but at least I never had to ask someone to move it back out.
August 15th, 2008Sorry Adam — some of these are just ‘mistakes a mom of 3 makes when she’s having one of those days’
I think I’m guilty of at least half of these, but I’ve installed a hard drive and a dvd drive; spend about 10 hours a day online; and can figure out the answer to just about any question with ‘the Google’ ;-)
Maybe I’m not a geek after all!! :-)
August 21st, 2008That was an entertaining list - found about 5 that I’m guilty of and one that I do at least once a week (forgetting email attachments).
August 21st, 2008That was funny - and I’m not very techie but I’m happy to see I haven’t committed too many of these!! And forgetting an attachment on an email is definitely more a result of chronic fatigue (aka 3 little boys to watch while working!) than lack of actual knowledge!
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