That's absolutely true, after all, IM messages are more on the level of 'brainfarts' than a carefully considered letter would be.

But since people are being sued and fired over tweets it seems safe to assume that those kinds of communications now carry the same weight as every other written form.

We agree about that - I'm just concerned that our technological ability is outpacing the responsiveness of our legal system. Like, imagine you were in court and someone pulled out a scrap of paper from 2004 saying 'gone 2 lunch, back in 15 minutes - Jacques' and then argues that you were actually gone for a full half hour, and that this calls your entire character into question. You're not wrong about people needing to be more careful; I just have reservations about the ramifications. I rather like the European approach that internet companies have a responsibility to wipe the data they host after a certain time rather than keep it online perpetually.

ps Ephemera, not ephemeral. Damn auto-correcting phone :-)