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.'"
You're just a jealous bitch, mom! You don't understand that Daniel and me are going to last FOREVER!! I HATE YOU!!! I HATE YOU!!
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
Wait, it's okay to share your Netflix password...?
I can think of at least three reasons why that's a bad idea.
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?"
XKCD covered this years ago http://xkcd.com/215/
And vice versa. He's a number guy, I'm a language person. So his passwords are long strings of numbers, and mine are long strings of words and symbols.
Occasionally living proof of the Ballmer peak.
I'd much rather my kids be having sex than sharing passwords.
Remember kiddies, using your ex-boyfriend's social networking password can be a felony!
Heck, even using your current boyfriend's passwords with his permission may be a felony in certain circumstances, especially if a financial transaction, medical-history-information, or intentional deception of anyone is involved.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
'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."
At least you can change the password... pretty hard to return virginity.
No one ever had to evacuate a city because the solar panels broke!
It's a serious crime in TN! Don't get caught, lovers!
"Civilization is the progress toward a society of privacy. The savage's whole existence is public, ruled by the laws of his tribe. Civilization is the process of setting man free from men."
Ayn Rand
Sounds like that woman had a lot of issues. Hope everything worked out for her.
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
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.
Teens that read Forbes probably have neither the time nor the ability to forge an intimate enough relationship in the first place
My wife and I do this. I keep her passwords on a sheet of paper in the safe. She reads mine before going to bed every night (I believe she's on chapter 2, "Routers and Switches").
~/ssh slashdot.org ssh: connect to host slashdot.org port 22: too many beers
Damnit, I was planning on watching Die Hard this weekend.
Now it looks like I don't have to.
Jerk.
Socrates gave us a point of view in that "True wisdom is knowing that you know nothing".
However, this comes from a man who's last words were "I drank what?!"
"When life gives you lemons, don't make lemonade. Make life take the lemons back!" -- Cave Johnson