Even with a tech background and more skills in this area than many people my age, I still find it increasingly difficult to navigate our changing tech world. Yesterday, after a phone update “improved” things, I could no longer access the Amazon app on my phone. They wanted to verify it was me through Google.
I followed the instructions on screen and it went to my Google account where it asked me for my pin. I don’t remember ever using a Google pin. I have a password, but no 6-digit pin. I use Google for a prime password manager and it regularly fills in requests for those damned passwords from other accounts that demand them. It quite logically wouldn’t give me my Google pin.
I have a second password manager and I asked it if I had a Google pin. Nope. I did a quick lookup, and the instructions told me step by step what to do. The problem being that those instructions were written before several software changes revamped the menus. I was left to try to figure out where they moved things.
Eventually, I got to where to get a new pin I had to enter my pin. It was a Catch-22 and Groundhog Day double feature. I went round and round and kept waiting to hear, "OK, campers, rise and shine, and don't forget your booties 'cause it's cold out there today!"
Somehow, don’t ask me how, I managed to create a six-digit pin for Google. I was then asked if I wanted to add two step verification, I declined. Two-step is for dancing, not computers. I will use two-step verification for bank accounts but not for passwords and stuff for things like access to my Fitbit readings.
Now I can get back to my online shopping. I just hope I can remember where I parked my car.
I can only imagine what other seniors encounter in this age of lightspeed “progress” where I daily travel through another dimension, a dimension not only of sight and sound but of mind. A journey into a wondrous land whose boundaries are that of imagination. That's the signpost up ahead - your next stop, the Twilight Zone!"
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