Confessions of a Password-Weary Silver Sage
If you’re like me, you still remember when “Password” was a game show. You gave clues, guessed words, maybe won a toaster. It was fun. It was simple.
Now? “Password" is a daily mental obstacle course that feels more like a pop quiz at the DMV—only with more emotional damage. And the toaster requires Wi-Fi to work.
Let’s face it: technology today is amazing, but it's not exactly user-friendly for those of us who still remember rotary dials, party lines, and the joy of leaving work at 5:00 and actually being done for the day. There was no checking email while waiting in line. Email didn’t exist. You never left home with your phone, because it was attached to your kitchen wall with a cord long enough to trip a family of four. If you were out, you were out. And somehow… everything got done anyway and people still managed to reach you when they needed to.
Fast forward a few decades, and now our phones follow us around like needy toddlers—beeping, dinging, and buzzing the moment we so much as breathe. Remember when a live person standing right in front of you got your full attention? Back then, a ringing phone could wait. Now we drop everything to see if it’s a notification from an app we don’t even remember downloading.
And the passwords! Oh, the passwords. Now you need a password to check the weather! Even my refrigerator wants a software update. I miss the days when it just kept things cold without asking for WiFi. God help you when you need to create a new password.
Your new one must contain:
1 capital letter
1 number
1 symbol
A hieroglyph
And the name of your first-grade teacher’s goldfish
You can't reuse an old one. You must change it every 30 days. And if you mess it up three times? Locked out until the next equinox.
At this point, my password strategy is:
Forget it
Loudly throw out a few choice words
Reset it
Repeat
Honestly, if I ever write a mystery novel, the villain will just be a login screen.
But you know what? We’re figuring it out. We may be Silver Sages, but we are resilient. We rode bicycles without helmets. We went out in the neighborhood and played all day, remembering to “be home before dark.” We listened to the radio all day, hoping they’d play our favorite songs. We’ve adapted to everything from 8-track tapes to AI assistants that answer when we didn’t ask them anything. (I’m talking to you, Alexa!) So yes, we’ll keep forgetting passwords… and we’ll keep resetting them, too.
Because deep down, we know the truth:
We were here before the cloud—and we’ll outlast it, too.
Need help navigating the wild world of tech with a little less stress and a lot more humor? You’re not alone. Join our community at Silver Sage Coaching—where we honor wisdom, embrace growth, and laugh through the learning curve.
