Users and the “related blame” syndrome
I’m not sure if this problem has been given an official name as of yet, so I will call it the “related blame” syndrome. Why is it that when it comes to computers and technology, people want to immediately relate one problem with another. Even if there is virtually no correlation, users decide to create one. This may be related to my article about how everyone thinks they are a computer expert, but I’m not sure. Here’s an example of something a user who is suffering with related blame syndrome might say:
“Remember two months ago when you were fixing my printer? Well, now my Internet Explorer doesn’t work.”
This is a common example of a user with “related blame” syndrome. What the user doesn’t quite understand is that they are creating a correlation based on the fact that both of these things are in the “technology” category and that there was a problem with each of them. If we look at example which is not in the technology realm, it helps to demonstrate the depth of this issue.
“Remember how last week at lunch your soup was cold? Well now my fridge doesn’t work.”
This statement is almost exactly equivalent. Soup is related to food, fridge is related to food, there was a problem with both of them, so the cold soup must be related to the broken fridge.
Now, I understand this is because technology is difficult to understand for some and that they don’t understand the underlying systems involved, but this does not explain why they need to create any correlation at all. If you don’t know anything about the subject at hand, why would you attempt to make a correlation? If I get the flu the day after I had a salad containing cucumber, I don’t draw a correlation between cucumbers and the flu. I don’t know anything about the flu or how a cucumber might be related to it and therefore making that correlation doesn’t even enter my mind.
This problem affects the mental well-being of computer professionals around the world and therefore must be stopped. Please help fight related blame syndrome in the technology industry by allowing those afflicted with this problem to read this article and understand exactly what they are saying.
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on August 30th, 2006 at 12:59 pm
[...] Dan from Netflap.com has an article describing a problem that he calls the “related blame syndrome.” I think the problem can be best explained by an example. The other day, I helped someone import their photos into iPhoto. A few days later, the person I helped says, “you helped me with iPhoto but you broke my Internet Connection!” Dan says, Why is it that when it comes to computers and technology, people want to immediately relate one problem with another. Even if there is virtually no correlation, users decide to create one. [...]
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