Slashdot Mirror
Teens Share Passwords As a Form of Intimacy
nonprofiteer writes "The New York Times claims that the hot new trend among teenagers in love is to share passwords to their email and Facebook accounts, as the ultimate form of trust. According to Pew, 33% of teens surveyed say they do this. One expert says the pressure to share passwords is akin to the pressure to have sex. Forbes says don't do it! 'There is something pure and romantic about the idea of sharing everything, and having no secrets from one another. But it's romantic the same way that Romeo and Juliet is romantic, in a tragic, horrible, everyone-is-miserable-and-dies-at-the-end kind of way.' Sam Biddle at Gizmodo writes about which passwords are okay to share (like Netflix), but says to stay away from handing over email or Facebook passwords. 'We all need whatever scraps of privacy we have left, and your email is just that.'"
Not sure why this is news. There's a reason your record is expunged when you turn 18. Perhaps the same should apply to online accounts.
"Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
'We all need an illusion of whatever scraps of privacy we have left, and your email is just that.'"
Because we sure as hell don't have any privacy left anymore.
Check your premises.
Exactly this. Post all over your Facebook account that you share all your passwords with your BF/GF then see how quickly your credit card company does the weasel dance if you ever have to make a claim for identity fraud. For my sins I did a couple of months working on phone support for the company that supports several large banks/CC companies and their policy was an instant "sorry, goodbye" if you suggested you'd shared your login details or pin number (your heart would sink when they admitted they lost their wallet and their card was in there along with their pin number scribbled on a post-it).
Giving out your password as a demonstration of trust is just silly. I trust my boss with work-related things, but that doesn't mean I give him the passwords to all the servers at work. Why? He doesn't need them. I trust my mom, but I don't give her my bank PIN. Why? She doesn't need it. I trust my girlfriend but I don't give her my gmail password. Why? Because she has no use for it. The difference between strangers and people I trust is that I ~would~ give friends/family secret credentials, if there was a valid need (e.g. I was sick and needed my girlfriend to perform a financial transaction for me). But giving out the details just for fun is illogical, and insecure.
Moreover, it's more a manifestation of a lack of trust. I don't care that I don't know my girlfriend's Facebook password... because I trust her. The only boyfriends/girlfriends who want each other's passwords are those who don't trust each other: they want to check up on what the other one is posting/saying. They don't trust them enough to let them have privacy or private conversations. I've seen this happen (my sister once had a jealous boyfriend who thought she was cheating on him and thus demanded access to her email and Facebook passwords so that he could check for himself... the relationship did not last).
Overall, this whole "if you loved me you'd give me your password" is infantile. The appropriate response is: "If you respected me you wouldn't ask for it."
She wanted to monitor my email and everything. Very nosy. I refused and she bitched about not trusting me. Turns out she was a cheating whore and just assumed that I had to be getting some on the side as well. She needed to verify because she could not trust because she was herself untrustworthy and insecure about it. Sharing passwords does not show trust, it shows lack of trust.
She's married, asshole. And if she weren't, I'm sure she didn't come to Slashdot to be facetiously and pseudonymously hit on.
There is no real positive here. This is just like sending naked photos of yourself to your bf/gf. It makes no damn sense to *give* someone blackmail material on you that can be copied easily and posted for the whole world to see if they get pissed at you. They do it because there is the short term feeling of trust shared between them, but with no conception of the long term consequences involved. In a way it's like the Romeo and Juliet syndrome: even though we have never had another relationship, we know we are perfect for one another, so you're not allowed to take any precautions, because otherwise it means you don't actually love me. You have to go whatever extreme I do, because we are in True Love, whether that be giving away passwords or committing suicide.
tl;dr: Teens think because they know more than babies do that they know everything. They haven't got a clue.
Shh, they'll have to go back and read 1005 of them!
Two coming of age talks:
1. The birds and the bees.
2. Internet security.
Check your premises.
Teens that read Forbes probably have neither the time nor the ability to forge an intimate enough relationship in the first place
Everyone thinks they know everything except geniuses.
There is no real positive here. This is just like sending naked photos of yourself to your bf/gf. It makes no damn sense to *give* someone blackmail material on you that can be copied easily and posted for the whole world to see if they get pissed at you.
You can't think of a single positive benefit of getting your partner sexually aroused looking at you? You don't think there's any relationship saved, intensified or even started by receiving or having erotic pictures of your partner? Long-distance relationships, temporary absences, love letters with a picture saying more than a thousand words? People have done that since the 19th century you know, shortly since they invented photography. Okay be the cynic and say the benefits don't outweigh the risks, particularly now that it can go all over the Internet but you'd be pretty blind to not see how it could help in courting women.
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings