The world is bigger than YouTube??

This week in my Social Media & Technologies class we read about how to help library patrons with the internet and how to help them browse and get online, tell the difference between usernames and logins and how to perform a basic internet search. This all may seem basic or mundane for the avid computer user but for those that have a computer barrier and are not familiar with "jumping" online, these tasks can seem daunting. 

One of our assignments was to choose an activity from what we read and discuss what we thought of this topic. I chose resetting a password from Chapter 3: Usernames and Logins. Making sure you have a solid strong password is a very important thing. Hackers prey on those who use easy to crack passwords. In our reading, they discussed turning weak passwords into strong passwords by switching the order of the letters, using numbers for letters, or inserting punctuation. Something as easy as changing an "e" to a "3", can strengthen a password. 

I think all ages can use this information. I feel younger people use weak passwords for the simplicity of it. Seniors seems to have a million different passwords floating around and have trouble keeping track of them all.  Having one solid password such as Health01, can be modified to H3alth02, or H3a!th03 while keeping the basic word Health. Keeping in mind how many passwords a patron may have and modifying their password for different circumstances is a key idea. Some potential challenges of teaching people how to change their passwords at the library is trusting the internet they are using is safe and secure. Also, giving the patron space to reset their password correctly without them feeling you are looking over their shoulder.

All in all, passwords are important. They are important to keep safe and secure. Important to have uncommon strong phrases and especially important to keep track of which passwords you use and where.