8 Good Tech Habits Everyone Should Have ...

One of the good tech habits which everyone should get into is simply questioning whether you are paying over the odds for a product. There are lots of myths which surround technology: that you have to spend hundreds of dollars on a TV, or that a refurbished product will not last you more than six months. These are just not true, and you can find excellent deals on many technological products which have fallen victim to these myths. Just as with everything, shop around and you may save a considerable amount of money. Also, unless you can truly afford it, don’t rush out to buy the latest release of a phone or tablet. The price always comes down, plus if you try to keep up with every new thing, you’d soon run out of budget!

Whether it’s your desktop, folders or hard drive, a cluttered computer will always end badly. Having a decent system for your work/documents is one of the easiest good tech habits that so many people just fail to adopt. If you are lucky, the worst thing that will happen is that you will lose documents which have been misplaced or accidentally deleted; in the worst case scenario, you will find that your computer slows down significantly. Keep your desktop and folders tidy and your computer will appreciate it!

Coming across public Wi-Fi may seem like a treat at first, but it is best avoided. Logging into such networks will put your device at the risk of being attacked by others in the network. It isn’t hard (in fact it’s quite easy) to locate someone’s sensitive information through an unprotected network, so make sure that you are only connecting to internet connections which are secure and safe.

One of the good tech habits which is often overlooked is making sure that your passwords are secure. Yes you hear it all the time – look after your passwords! While it may not seem like there is anything of importance on your email (who wants to browse through the hundreds of spam emails you are sent, after all?), you could be very mistaken. Access to an email account through a simple password could put your bank account and your personal identity at risk. Use characters, both uppercase and lowercase, numbers and symbols if you really want to protect yourself. There are multiple apps out there which can be installed on web browsers which keep track of your passwords for you, if you struggle to remember them all.

Have you ever taken your computer to a local PC repair shop? If you have, you may know just how important Google can be to tech experts. Simply Googling the problem you are having could provide you with the answer free of charge! There are millions of tutorials on the Net to help solve many problems you might have with your PC etc. Checking if you can first solve it yourself is one of the good tech habits that will certainly save you time and money.

Although computers have become much more reliable, one of the most important ways to look after your technology is to back them up. Most modern computers provide the option to automatically back up important files every so often (usually scheduled to fortnightly to a month) so that in the event that your computer crashes, you are able to restore its files without any hassle.

It’s true that nobody goes looking for a virus to infect their computer with, but it is also true that the best anti-virus protection is common sense. Don’t download attachments to suspicious emails (if they are in your junk folder, your provider has put them there for a good reason) and never download files which come through Internet ads. Common sense will go a long way! Remember too, if you have a virus, and don’t know about it, you could unwittingly circulate it.

It’s horrific how many people do not understand the privacy settings of their social networking accounts. Facebook and Twitter are two of the worst culprits – if your settings aren’t secure, anyone could access your personal photos and locations. If there is one good tech habit which everyone should follow in this day and age, it’s just that they should protect their privacy settings adequately.

I know these good tech habits are pretty simple, but that’s why they are good. And, how many of you, hand on heart, actually follow every one religiously? It doesn’t hurt to be reminded of the ways to look after your technology because it is so much a part of our lives. I’m terrible at not saving my work as I do it. What are your bad tech habits?