Brothers and Privacy

SO my actual first blog post was done by my brother. Thanks brother for that short and random post. Thanks for being special...especially crazy. I'll take this time to say a word about brothers and privacy, there's no such thing. I lost my privacy in 1991 around age 13, when I was in junior high school (or middle school for those that did not grow up in LRSD). Coincidentally my younger brother was 8, in elementary school and got out of school about an hour before I did which gave him plenty of time to go through every drawer, closet or anything else in my room by the time I got home from school. He was totally the brother from "Tales of a 4th Grade Nothing" and I hated it. I did not get my privacy back until 5 years later when I left home to go to college.

But then I had somewhat nosy roommates, but at least they didn't go through my stuff while I was out.

I lost my privacy again around 2005, when I moved in with my brother and sister. Again they didn’t go through my things but an unattended cell phone or computer will more than likely be used to send some random ridiculous message to a large number of friends.

Exhibit A: Him: Let me see your cell phone.

Me: Hands over phone like an idiot. His battery is usually dead so seemed like a logical reason to give over the phone.

Random message from friend 2 days later: “If it’s true, Congratulatons!”

Me: -puzzled and unsure what the hell she’s talking about, I brush it off and move on with life.-

Me again: Going through old text messages about 2 weeks later & finds an

Outgoing message to a friend that says “I’m pregnant”.

Exhibit B: Scene: Runs upstairs, leaves laptop open. Facebook page pulled up. Return to computer and notice a 3 by the little globe on the Facebook page. I don’t remember posting anything that would render any responses. Click on my profile.

Status update: I can’t stand black people.

Replies: Me either (from a black person). Why not?

From the FB hacker: What’s funny is people are agreeing and “Like”ing this status.

New Status update: Please disregard this message, I left my computer unattended in the same room with my brother.

Exhibit C: Sisters phone left unattended, FB status changed to: I’m sitting in this restaurant cutting my toe nails.

5 alerts on her cell phone bring it to her attention that she has been hacked.

There are many other tales of hacked computers and cell phones and NO ONE, I repeat NO ONE is excluded. I won’t even get into the messages that have been sent to church members from the wife’s phone or teenage boys that almost caught a beat down from their mama over a fake text.

I say all this to say, don’t let my brother EVER use your cell phone or computer unattended, even if it seems harmless and even if he doesn’t know you. He has his own cell phone and computer so he really shouldn’t be asking. Brothers and privacy cannot coexist.