I'm normally fairly good with people's birthday yet I missed a friend's yesterday. I only discovered it today when I opened my diary and realised the reason I forgot is because she doesn't have a Facebook account. I've come to rely on this tool but also many other aspects of social media. It hasn't just given me more channels to communicate but has now become a main source of information and entertainment. The way I contact people and stay in touch with them has changed with Facebook. The way I watch my favourite television shows has changed with YouTube, which has also opened up infinite hours of UGC. Similarly, the radio is streamed via podcasts. The daily read of a newspaper has changed with my RSS Subscriptions where I choose what I want to read. Interestingly, these changes are all free. No wonder Generation Y is so reliant on social media....

Many of the podcasts I listen to on a regular basis have Facebook groups. Ones that immediately come to mind are Six Pixels of Separation, Jaffe Juice and Gen Y Marketing Podcast. But what is the point? The groups all seem dead. Julian Cole says they can be used to promote podcast episodes but I can't help but feel members of this group would already be subscribed. Similarly, these podcasts usually start or end with the same spiel in each episode. As regular listeners, surely we already know where to find you, how to contact you and have checked out the blog? This valuable content time and energy is wasted on a few potential new listeners. It seems like an incredibly outdated approach and almost mass media like. Why waste time preaching to the choir?...

Firstly, my apologies. I didn't mean for that to be such a provocative title but it got your attention, eh? Where do you stand on swearing in blogs? I don't mean any random swearing but when it is used to show passion or expression. Does it further add to the fact I'm a Generation Y, 18 year old blogger? Or does it steal credibility, portray me as unprofessional and ward off potential employers or more importantly readers?...