Password Sharing

As I discussed in my previous post, technology has been changing how relationships develop. Years ago, a couple displayed their love for each other by offering a letterman jacket or giving a fraternity pin to a new girlfriend. The new generation’s connection to technology has changed the way couples show their love. The current trend amongst teenagers is to share their passwords to email accounts and social media sites with their boyfriend/girlfriend.

These days the majority of the information we consider private can be found on our computers or cellphones. Personally, I have two passwords to access my computer and a passcode on my IPhone. I was shocked to hear about this new trend of password sharing since I consider a lot of my information on my computer as private. Also, I would not want someone to be able to access my Facebook or Twitter since there could be a lot of damage done very quickly.

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According to The New York Times January 2012 article, “They say they know such digital entanglements are risky, because a souring relationship can lead to people using online secrets against each other. But that, they say, is part of what makes the symbolism of the shared password so powerful.” Couples are beginning to share their passwords because they feel it’s a sign of trust. They are showing their partner that there is nothing to hide from one another.

“Trust is an important bedrock for any relationship, but this isn’t trust. This is mutually assured trust destruction. Intimacy comes from sharing select private information with people, not giving them keys to your privacy kingdom.” -Forbes

However, if the relationship was to dissolve the damage that can be done with access to a social media account for example could be extensive. The Forbes article stated that once you share your password you are violating the privacy of the people you have interacted with too. I agree with that statement because people share plenty of personal information via email or social media that they probably do not want to be read by anyone’s partner as well.

The expert, Rosalind Wiseman who studies how teenagers use technology believes that the pressure to share a password is similar to the pressure to have sex. Educators and parents stress how important it is not to share personal information such as a password. Since it is so forbidden by our parents Rosalind Wiseman believes it seems more attractive to share a password, much like how teens view sex.

A child psychologist stated, “What worries me is we haven’t done a very good job at stopping kids from having sex, so I’m not real confident about how much we can change this behavior.” 

Passwords are more than just a combination of letters and numbers or some other confusing requirement by the website, they are literally a key to loads of information. People need to be selective to whom they decide to share this key with and my advice is to keep as it should be, a secret word to access information for your eyes only.