Dear Kid,

If it’s on the internet, it’s permanent — as in for-e-ver.

You know that. You have heard six zillion, 9 grillion and 4 messages about not posting anything you don’t want everyone to see. About how things on the web last forever. And that you are likely to feel differently about what people know about you when you are 30 than you do now.

So I will not bother to repeat any of that.

I will not spend a pixel telling you that potential employers will check your Facebook page and your twitter feed and your Google Plus circles and so on (even if you think they can’t).

And I will not tell you that you should never post anything you wouldn’t want your mother to see. That you might not want children to see. That you don’t want reporters to see when you run for President of the United States (or for dog catcher).

But here is something entirely new: There is a well-known tweeter who is tweeting from beyond the grave.

You heard me. He’s dead. Tweets still coming through.

You know that I love twitter. Love. Can almost always be found there. For the record, I am hilarious there too. (Feel free to follow me @JudiCogen)

The short version (here is the long version) is that @RickCaffienated used some kind of program within Hootsuite (which no one seems able to figure out) to schedule tweets—which are still showing up after his sudden and unexpected death in January.

Which raises the question, what will people find out about you after you’re dead? Or when you have the flu or when you’re out of town or whatever.

Think carefully about what you post, Kid. It may come back to haunt you. (Get it? from beyond the grave? Haunt? oh, never mind.)

Love, Mom