A few tips for non-techies

[Mike N]

I’m going to be 65 soon but due to my line of work, I’m around a lot of good tech people daily at my office. I know there are lot of us who get frustrated with all this technology. So, I thought we could each post a simple teaching tip or two :

Here are 4 from me:

1. Internet addresses ARE NOT upper and lower case sensitive, so, JohnDoe@gmail.com is ok to type as johndoe@gmail.com. Either way will get your email there.

2. Passwords, however, ARE upper and lower case sensitive.

3. Here are a few abbreviations you might see:

LOL: Laughing out loud.
ASAP: As soon as possible.
FYI: For your information.
G2G: Got to go.
FB: Facebook.
MSG: Message.
TTYL: Talk to you later.
IMO: In my opinion.
LMAO: Laughing my A— Off

4. Just because you get a spam email from a person you know does NOT mean that person has been “hacked,” despite what some people post on Joe’s. It could be your own email that is being “spoofed.” Google it.

Any other advice for the technically challenged?

[john elder]

Good start, Mike! I don’t have too much more to add at the moment, but a couple are:

1. Don’t open (click on) any links in emails from folks you don’t know. Even then, be careful since as Mike says, people can pretend to be someone they managed to pull from your directory. If it doesn’t make sense, don’t go there. If its important and a concern, give them a call or text to verify.

2. If you get an email from your “bank” or some credit institution to which you subscribe, don’t use links in the email… go directly to the account and see if there is really an activity of concern. A typical case might be an email from PayPal saying some charge has been made and to click on the link to check your account. This is a scam to get you to type in your password. Go directly to the account, not via the email.

3. Check your spam/junk file frequently! For some reason, certain “good” emails are seen as spam by the service provider and get dumped into spam. I think more fights and frustrations are started via emails because someone sent an email that the receiver claims to have not received! Generally, if you click on those emails and declare they are not spam, then future emails are treated properly. However, i have a couple buddies that i just told them to text me, since i could not get AOL to recognize them as legit!

Late addendum re spam folder: once you have verified there’s none worth saving, delete all the remaining emails so you won’t have to look at them next time: edit…mark all… delete… yes, i mean it… delete !!

4. Speaking of which, if you have a smart phone, you can send a text to someone where you know their cell number and it will get to them directly and immediately. You can then carry on a “conversation” in real time, where you can write down specifics to refer to later, like contact info, prices on items and pics of items. One really nice feature is that you can send short videos attached to texts and they will go right thru, whereas even short videos are too big to email in reasonable time ( if at all).

[Bill Muth]

3. Here are a few abbreviations you might see:

LOL: Laughing out loud.
ASAP: As soon as possible.
FYI: For your information.
G2G: Got to go.
FB: Facebook.
MSG: Message.
TTYL: Talk to you later.
IMO: In my opinion.
LMAO: Laughing my A— Off

A few that I can add to this list from kids and work:

ICYMI: In case you missed it
FOMO: Fear of missing out
BRB: Be right back
YOLO: You only live once
IMHO: In my humble opinion
TY: Thank you

[Midway Tommy D]

One that I can add because I do it a lot these days and use it frequently.

SMH: Shake my head

Highlight web links and e-mail addresses to make sure they are secure and/or legitimate before opening or using them.

[reelsmith.]

WTF ???

[Midway Tommy D]

WTF ???

What's that for?

[Paul M]

Where available, set up 2FA (two-factor authentication) to reduce the chances of getting hacked. A website with 2FA can verify it is really you if there is any doubt. One way it is used is that when someone tries to login to your account from a new device the system could send you a verification code by another means such as a text to your cellphone or an email to a secondary email account or even call your house with a voice message. You would be prompted to enter the temporary code or warned that there was an attempt to get into your account. Well known companies that use 2FA are numerous including
Google
Amazon
Facebook
Coinbase
Apple
eBay
Etsy
Epic Games
Cloudflare
Dropbox
PayPal