Sometimes, we’re relieved we aren’t vulnerable to the easy mistakes that can be made by today’s youth in regards to emails, posts, photos, videos, Tweets, etc. One tiny misstep can turn into a lifelong embarrassment.

But then we remember we have children who are part of “today’s youth.” And furthermore, we hear about the not-so-young who email, post, photograph, video or Tweet something they’ll come to regret.

As a result, we try to stop to think (before it’s too late), “What if this (post, email, Tweet, photo, etc.) were seen by everyone on the Internet?” It sometimes keeps us from doing something we may regret, such as:

• A Miami Heat basketball player posted a TwitPic that displayed his “Supercool” new tattoo … and a table in the background holding a remote control, a bottle of 7-Up … and a baggie of something.
• So many mistakes were made here, we don’t know where to start. A Kansas City journalist, citing uncertainty in the newspaper biz, responds to an opening at a PR firm with a conversational yet ill-advised email inquiry. Inexplicably, the brand manager who received the email fired it off to a blog about “bad pitches,” which inexplicably posted the journalist’s missive with his name as a “reverse bad pitch” entry. Why any of these folks did what he or she did is beyond us. And our posting it may be almost as bad. But we think the potential for lessons learned outweighs the drawbacks of shedding more light on the kerfuffle.
• The author of this article may not think he made a mistake at all, though many of his customers do. Did he think through it thoroughly before agreeing to write a health care reform piece for the Wall Street Journal? If so … if he knew what may befall him but felt so strongly as to continue … then we salute his conviction. But it may cost him some business. As the CEO of a natural foods grocer, he knows his customers lean toward the left side of the political aisle. The CEO offered a reasonable solution to health care reform that didn’t include any provisions of President Obama’s plan. In fact, it denounced them (starting with a Margaret Thatcher quote: “The problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people’s money.”) The blogosphere, at least amongst many progressives, was not impressed. Protests were staged. Facebook pages cropped up. Was it worth it to the CEO and his company? Would he do it again if given the chance … and would you?

Note: We hope the summaries above aren’t too vague. We purposefully didn’t list names or companies, as our goal isn’t to drive cheap search traffic to our site based on trending topics. Rather, we wanted to offer readers some food-for-thought as you go forth in this ever-changing landscape. And we’ve linked to the articles in question so you can get all the facts yourself.

Be careful out there folks. You never know who might be watching in the jungle that’s out there!