This week in class we discussed passwords, internet security, and backing up our online content. Our discussion of passwords was somewhat thought provoking. I do use the same handful of words for multiple passwords, but they are kind of random words and I misspell them different ways for different sites, so taking that into account, I think they are pretty diverse. I did realize this week, however, that my Amazon password is the same one I have had since I opened the account in the mid-90’s. And it’s not a very secure one. So I need to change that. Especially since Amazon has my credit card and home address info. I also realized that I tend to put capital letters at the beginning and punctuation at the end, so I ought to be more mindful of that.
Discussing the archiving of internet information reminded me that it’s been a while since I backed up my LJ. And now that that is hosted in Russia, and Russia seems increasingly unstable in news reports, I feel like I really need to keep on top of that. Our discussion made me wonder if I ought to be doing something to archive my Facebook stuff. Honestly, I have a hard time imagining who in the future could possibly care about my Facebook updates, but I do document a lot of the minutia of my life there. And some of it is interesting. But a lot of it is not. So weeding through all that and somehow saving the interesting stuff just sounds like an enormous investment of time and effort that I am not sure I could justify.
I stand by my paper back ups though. I’m not much of a believer in apocalyptic mania, but there is a part of me that still feels like someday (you know, when the zombie apocalypse comes) everything I’ve store online will be so easily vaporized. Paper feels somehow more substantial, more lasting, more real. So, while I do keep a lot of my life online, if something really matters to me, I try to have a physical copy of it somewhere. It’s a personal neurosis, I guess.
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