Why Do We Forget Our Passwords?

Nowadays, each of us has dozens of accounts with different logins. We must remember a lot of usernames and passwords. The majority of people use the same password for all their accounts. This is a security nightmare. If someone got access to one account, he can easily hack others. It's why we often hear news about stolen identities or hacked accounts.

A study from 2012, titled, "Why Do We Forget Passwords? A New Explanation Based on Temporal Distortions in the Mental Calendar," discusses how and why people forget passwords. The researchers found that "people tend to forget passwords that are used infrequently and prefer passwords that are easy to recover," which also explains why there is a psychological paradigm shift when it comes to password creation and memory.

Many people use the names of family members or pets with slight changes. However, this approach is not a secure way to manage passwords. Security professionals think it's improper to use the same password for several accounts, since this approach dramatically reduces the effectiveness of a strong password and increases the possibility of its theft or exposure.

What Should I Do If I Forget My Facebook Password?

If you forgot your password, then using the email address you originally used to sign up for Facebook is one way to recover your Facebook account; however, you can also do so using a backup email address or phone number. If Facebook and your Google account are connected, it will also work properly. This method works in the following way:

1. Go to Facebook’s login page.
2. Click on Forgot account?
3. Select a method for resetting your Facebook password: Google account, backup email address, or phone number. Click Continue and follow the instructions to reset your password.

Why Password Manager Is A Must Nowadays

A database containing information on more than 530 million Facebook users was made available to the public in an online hacking forum in April 2021. Data from Facebook appears to have been scrapped in 2019 when a group of hackers took advantage of a flaw in Facebook's contact importer.

So, unless you're a secret agent or hacker, your passwords probably aren't that complicated. As such, it's not hard for someone with access to your computer to guess your password. Thankfully, there's a solution; password managers can generate, store and organize secure logins for you.

To keep this information safe, password managers use a master password as a key to encrypt your login details, meaning that only you can access them. No one will be able to get access to your logins.

With millions of passwords being hacked every year, it's never been more important to be using a password manager.