Awkward List

Awkward moments and more weird stuff

internet

How do you keep track of your internet passwords?

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I am seriously surprised at the enormous amount of number and letter combinations I can remember to access my favorite websites and online services. Stamps, Google, Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Pinterest, WordPress, HootSuite, Yahoo!, MyNook… and the list goes ON AND ON!

Some request a capital letter and a number, others BEG you to include a “special character” …uhh like in a TV show? I pick Dwight from The Office. Oh, you mean one of these !@#$%^&*()_ 

I once entered a password and it was all like “You changed that a while ago, remember?” … so they keep track of my current password AND my past passwords. Dude, that was way back when I was into Pokemon.

On top of that, I have to remember my usernames. I try to keep it pretty constant, but every once in a while, someone takes my very unique name that I use everywhere. I pretty much make a face like this when I see that:Confused and Disappointed

So naturally I need to check to see if the person who owns that account is worthy of the username, and most of the time they haven’t logged on since 2002. C’mon, people. Remember my previous post on usernames? Mega lame.

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Thank you so much for your current submissions! You guys ROCK. Let’s keep it going, we have a few more days. From my previous post:

Instead of giving general advice that you can find in a free magazine at your taco stand, let’s hear some stories from real people in order to give hope to others who are searching and find it impossible to find somebody during these times as we approach a Hallmark holiday. I’d like you to:

  1. Share the story of how you met someone special. Type it up, it can be as long or as short as you want.
  2. Submit it on this website via a comment, the “Submit” page on the top of this website, or on your own blog and share the link on here.
  3. Read your own story along with the stories of other people on a story post to be published this upcoming Friday morning.

Someone took your username. And hasn't posted anything.

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“Sorry, that username is not available.”

Have you ever tried to make an account somewhere, only to find out that the username that you want is taken by someone else? That’s enough to get anybody out there angry, but how about when you visit their profile/website and find out that they haven’t used it at all?

A friend of mine recently tried making a Tumblr account and was explaining how she was so angry that someone had her name and had not posted in forever. Levar Burton, the guy from Reading Rainbow, contacted Twitter in order to get the username “ReadingRainbow” because the owner of the username hadn’t posted in a while. They gave it to him. Are we allowed to do that? Woo hoo!

The whole internet accounts thing is getting pretty crazy, and I’ve actually surprised myself in the amount of passwords that I can remember. Some websites make you use a special character !@#$%^ or one capital letter, one number. Only numbers, only letters, or a combination of the two but no special characters, special characters only, and some that need to be exactly 6 characters long with no spaces and 2 special characters. Seriously people?

A long time ago, all I had to worry about was my email address password, and the pin to access my checking account. Now we have to remember our password to log into our computers, Facebook, Twitter, pin for your iPhone, email, Pinterest, Tumblr, WordPress, job applications, FAFSA, lock combination, school log in.

And THEN just in case we forget any of these, there are a ton of “security questions and answers” that we have to remember. A while ago, the Sprint people asked me what elementary school I went to, my bank asked for the name of my first girlfriend.. the list goes on and on:

  • Favorite person from history?
  • Where did your parents meet?
  • What is your mother’s maiden name?
  • What was the color of your first pet?
  • What was the name of your first car? (I think I got those two mixed up)
  • What is your favorite food?
  • What is your social security number?
  • Will you marry me?
  • Have you ever stolen anything?

Ok, so maybe they don’t get THAT silly, but come on. Sometimes they are pretty strange.

I say you congratulate your memory for such an awesome accomplishment. How many passwords do YOU have to remember? Has anyone ever taken your username?