My brother doesn't respect my privacy?

[Jen]

This brings back memories of growing up with my own nosy little brother. It really is strange when you don't care what's happening behind his bedroom's closed door, but they feel like they need total access to everything you do, the people you socialize with, etc.

Little brothers are nosy, curious, socially awkward human beings. Since you have zero control over his roller coaster journey of bad choices through puberty, all you can do is take advantage of every privacy setting available to you.

Require a password to get into your phone and to log onto your computer. Yes, it's an extra step to getting access to your own information when YOU want to, but think of this as being similar to parking your car in a neighborhood where it's been stolen before. You wouldn't leave the keys in the ignition and the doors unlocked, would you?

I know you probably want to keep your chats open when you leave your computer just for a few minutes, but you can CTL ALT Delete to lock your computer without closing out all of your programs altogether. Everything will be there waiting when you come back.

You can hide everything your brother sees about you on FB via the privacy settings. Facebook does allow you to hide information by user, so anyone else in your life will still see the information, but he won't. He won't even be able to see your friends if you do that.

I realize you can't password-protect access to your bedroom, but if he and his friends are rifling through your drawers it's completely appropriate to have a discussion with your parents about it. I'm sure it's maddening, but try to keep your cool when you talk to your mom and dad. Just say, "I've asked him not to do this, he won't listen. Will you please talk to him?"