And there are those of us who have NO cell phone. [And yes, we had one for almost five years and - thankfully - we got rid of it.]

A first rule in technical writing, information-giving, providing safety measures, etc. KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE. USA government often does well. They slipped up here. Ronni, nothing slips past your eagle eye. THANK YOU for calling out this good idea that went bad for want of user focus groups, etc., and for providing channels to be heard.

I take your point, and I thank you for pointing this out. It would not hurt to take this to AARP as well as to Congress,

I do want to point out that text capable cell phones are not necessarily smart phones. Before 2012 I owned a basic cell phone that could text. There are probably quite a few people who own simple cell phones that are not smart phones, and which have texting capabilities.

I do agree that this is going to be too hard for many of the elderly to do though. What an odd requirement!

Ronni - Thanks again for your informative article.
TGB is filled with valuable information.

Great info today from you Ronni & all of the above. Have gone thru something similar when my local bank changed hands. Botched so badly that many, many have changed & joined the local credit union which bends over backwards to accommodate everyone especially elders. Somehow we have to storm congress & the "powers" that be to make our voices heard.

And yes I have a cell/trac phone, but it is for emergencies only & only certain people have the number. Dee

I detest multifactor authentication and its assumption in its infancy that everyone had a cellphone and kept it with them at all times. At least now most systems will offer you a choice of how to receive your code (cell or regular phone, email, etc.) I suppose we should be grateful that at least we have online access and no longer have to go stand in line at some brick-and-mortar office to conduct our business.

Tangential reaction from somebody almost 80 whose demographics bely that fact: Don't even get me started on getting locked out of my bank's website! Drives me nuts. And it's not that rare (what, I dunno, maybe once every month or two, but--c'mon, people! We wanna pay our bills here!).

No doubt, if we don't blow ourselves up in the next century, the technology will become a lot more user-friendly . . .

I got the email telling me of this and thought it was a scam. I didn't click on the link and deleted the email. I cannot see why I should give the social security administration my cell phone number. I've never used My Social Security so don't feel like I'm going to miss anything.

The My Social Security website has an explanation of and a rationale for their adoption of the text code layer. You just have to dig deep to learn that ....

"We understand that not everyone may have a cell phone or cell service. However, research shows that an overwhelming majority of American adults have cell phones and use them for texting. This is our first step in adding security, and we expect future enhancements will provide other options."

Yes, 64% of all adults might be an overwhelming majority to some, but this obviously does not apply to their 65+ customers at 27%.

This underwhelming information came at the expense of having my account access frozen after 3 unsuccessful attempts to log in with the exact information I carefuly wrote down after the last time I tangled with them . So I called the 800 number and, after navigating the options menu was told I had a 50 min. wait to speak with someone. No offer was made to take my numbner and call me back. Sometimes I think the Republicans have a point about big gov't.

I don't have a cell phone and rarely use my landline. I have a hearing disability -- I can hear certain tones perfectly fine, but some tones (high-pitched or low-pitched) are gibberish to me. I cannot afford hearing aids. I can't afford a cell phone either unless I get rid of the landline and I can't do that since it's bundled with my television and computer.

So I guess I'll never again be talking to a Social Security person in this lifetime.

It reminds me of when I was still working and the company installed voice mail. What it meant for many of my coworkers is that they never again had to answer their phone -- at least that's how they used it. If someone complained that they couldn't reach so-and-so, they'd just blame it on the system and they were instantly off the hook.

Banks installed ATMs so they wouldn't have to deal with customers and could get rid of most of their tellers, while telling us the ATMs would "stream-line" service. Companies installed voice mail so they wouldn't have to pay anyone to answer the phones, all the while saying what a "help" it would be for their customers. What a laugh. Anyone who has been entrapped in "voice-mail jail" knows how frustrating it is to tell your problem to ten different people, all of whom would transfer you to another department without staying on the line so you wouldn't have to go through the whole rigmarole with each different person. That used to be standard telephone etiquette when I first started working (back in the dark ages). Now they're all happy to drop you like a hot potato rather than help you to navigate the waters of their unique voice-mail system. If all systems worked the same it might not be so bad, but every company has its own system with its own idiosyncrasies.

I'll be glad to leave this life and never have to deal with tech systems that were installed before all the glitches and bugs were worked out. And every governmental department seems to have their own brand of mayhem.

BTW, for those who don't want to give their cell phone number to every Tom, Dick, and Harry who asks for it, set up a Google Voice account and give them THAT number. All your messages will go there. You can also set it to send you an email informing you of the call. You can receive either text or voice messages this way.

Class of 65, you hit the nail squarely on the head. I would rather eat ground glass than get myself entangled in the spider web of a voice-activated system, which is what most companies use now. Our only defense, and I use it often, is to hit the "0" or sometimes "00" to get connected to a human. That doesn't always work, but if you scream enough, it works and I'm not averse to screaming to get to a solution that would otherwise never happen. I recall having a horrible time disentangling a problem about payment for a prescription through a mail system. I was at my wit's end because even with humans involved, I was still encountering numerous transfers and they were all in separate departments, meaning they seemingly didn't speak the same language. Finally I got one intelligent representative who resolved to stay on the line with me and with the other rep. Just like that, with three humans talking, the problem was resolved. Halleluia! It takes willing humans to solve problems, but getting them, literally, on the same line is sometimes almost impossible.