My wife says that if I write this column I will sound like a grumpy old man. I guess that makes sense. I am a man. I am old. And, yes, I am grumpy at times. Most older people are. It comes with the territory. Older people have aches and pains we didn’t have twenty years ago. Even ten years. But what really is grumping me now is the fact that virtually everything online requires a password.
Of course, I understand this when it involves my banking. But, seriously, it seems now anything I do prompts me to create a password. For example, recently I got an email from a house cleaning company I use asking me to rate their service. They did a good job, so I was happy to tell them so. But to do that I had to create a password. And, of course the password required at least seven digits of which one must be capitalized and it also needed at least one number. On this I fought back. I mean they are asking me a favor in rating them, so why are they making it so difficult? So, I simply did not rate them. But they could have had four stars.
The other day my Apple watch was not functioning right. My wife is our family tech expert so I asked if she could fix it. What do you suppose was the first thing she asked me? Right. Do you know the password for the watch? Since when have watches had passwords?
Recently I wanted to order something online. The website already knew my name, my address and my phone number. Then why in the world would it need a password? It knew me. We had done business in the past. It always seemed to like me before but now I needed to prove who I was by creating a stupid password.
I am a member of Freedom Boat Club, something I highly recommend. I’ve been a member for eight years. They have my credit card on file. But the other day I wanted to make a new reservation and I couldn’t. You can guess why. I needed a password. For the last eight years I haven’t needed one, but now it’s required. What possible good comes from this?
May I tell you what worries me? At my age I don’t know how many years I have left. And I certainly don’t know my destination for the afterlife. But if I am lucky enough to go up rather than down, I am worried that Saint Peter will greet me at the pearly gates and say “Hi, Chris. Glad to see you. Do you know your password to get in?”
Chris Core is a former Washington, D.C. radio and television personality who now lives in Pass-a-Grille. He is a winner of the Edward R. Murrow Award for outstanding achievement in broadcast journalism.