LIVING BY THE CODES

This I noticed just today. That in this modern time, an average joe like me lives a life governed by codes. Of course, by codes, I am referring to the 7 up to 10 alphanumeric digits that allow you to access to your “life” (among other names, it would be referred to as password, ID, PIN, authentication key, etc). And what’s more surprising is that, you needed more than 1 code just in order to get through the day. I mean when I woke, I opened my cell phone and my phone would “ask” me for my PIN number so that it could unlock the SIM card. Then, at work, you open your computer and the computer would require you to log in and punch your password so that you could access to their work files. Then, when you went online, you need another password just in order to open your mails. Now if you have more than one email account, you would also need that many password and codes in order to access those emails of yours. Now you could add a few more to your list if you have a Friendster account, a MySpace account, a Messenger account, a Blogger account and so on and so forth. The list keeps on growing but that is not all. You have an account number and a PIN number for your bank account, another set for your ATM, and still another set for your credit cards, then there is your SSS number and so on and so forth………. All these codes, there are too many of them. Of course, there is no rule that state that you should have as many codes as you have accounts, files, email accounts etc. For all you care, you could have just one (and that is usually your birthday) but that is not exactly the safest or the most prudent way to protect you “life”. On the other extremes, one could have many codes but that is not practical since one can’t remember that many and not to mention that it could potentially drive people to insanity. So the best way really is to use only a handful of codes for a plethora of accounts. According to psychologists, an average human mind can store up to 7 related items give and take 1. That means, an average joe can remember only 7 sets of codes for all his accounts that need protecting. 7 codes! 7 codes to run your life. Great! So how do we get to this in the first place? Well, there is always technology to blame. With technology, time and space is fast losing relevance and the world shrank (it has been going on for the last 2,000 years or so). It shrank and shrank until it becomes too crowded for comfort that we begin to feel the need to protect our identity, to separate what is ours and what is not ours; to carve our “space”. We need to protect our identity from being usurped, from being “misused”, abused, and destroyed. We need to protect what is ours from others. And thus, the code was born. This says a lot about human beings that regardless that how much we needed each other, we still needed to “protect” ourselves from each other. We still have secrets. We still value privacy. We still wanted to be on our own.