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The Digital Mission NYC is almost here (22-26 Feb) and you're in luck, there's a couple of places up for grabs if you'd like to join some of the UK's top tech startups and agencies in the Big Apple. Apply here.

The trip organised by Chinwag and UK Trade & Investment USA includes a specially-designed week long programme of the Big Apple's top tier digital media, marketing and advertising players including Facebook, VaynerMedia, WeWork, PSFK, a VC panel, a VIP reception at the HM Consul General's residence in NYC and lots more.

Based in London? More good news. Thanks to UKTI London there are a limited number of grants towards travel/accommodation.

The mission also takes in Social Media Week NYC Insider Pass providing access to 150+ speakers, workshops, the exclusive opening event and the infamous closing party.

Generation Z, the kids of Gen X and Gen Y are hitting their teens and starting their careers. Feel old yes, yes, us too. You might think you know how teens are using social but it's worth reading this post on the subject.

Mobile marketing company GlobalMessaging crunched the numbers on Gen X to discover their behaviour and attitudes: Whilst 50% are making plans for their college years, 25% are leaving Facebook whilst second, third or even fourth-screening.

Laptop on my knee at the local bar, I intended to write a post about the potentially positive impact social media has on addiction. Perhaps I'd cover how forums, niche networks and even public posts might assist in the recovery and support of those alienated from society.

It’s a topic that fascinates me because it may well be an area in which the online social engine has made a positive impact on life expectancy (or at least longevity). However, on posting my intentions to Facebook, friends immediately steered me to the subject of social media itself as an addictive pastime.

Ok. So Facebook messed with our mojo and never told us about it.

If you’ve been living under a rock – or at Glastonbury – for the past few days, you might be forgiven for having missed the breaking news that Facebook conducted an experiment for one week in 2012, skewing nearly 700,000 users’ newsfeeds to be either happier or sadder than normal by making some sneaky adaptations to its algorithm.

Twitter must have seen it coming… with the World Cup in full swing Twitters “mute” button couldn’t have come at a better time for me (and anyone else who dislikes the spot).

It’s a great feature, but I’d be keen to see Twitter allow you to block out words and hashtags from your timeline. Never again will I have to see #JustinBieberForLife.

Over the last decade, so many of us have become slaves to our Twitter feed or Facebook posts. With Twitter turning 8 this year and Facebook turning 10, who could have predicted how much these networks would take off. Klood takes a look at what social media might be like 10 years from now. 

With Facebook recently turning the big 1 0, there has been talk of it reaching it’s peak. Valued at $150 billion and connecting 1.23 billion users, half the worlds Internet connected population, is this really true? 

This post was written by Mat Morrison, Social Media Strategy Director at Starcom MediaVest Group and originally appeared on his blog. You can find him @mediaczar and his evil alter ego, @evilczar.

Like most other modern human beings (and I’m including you in this), I’m naturally bad at prioritising my life. There are all sorts of psychological processes that — while nicely suited to living in the early hominid moment — aren’t much use when it comes to mid- and long-term planning in the modern world. Wikipedia maintains a handy-dandy list of the resulting cognitive biases that’s worth perusing from time to time.

We all know a Facebooker or Tweeter that should probably have sat on their hands rather than posted that last message. If you can’t think of any then it may be you!

We’ve all been there, in the throes of anger we’ve said something we didn’t mean. The same thing happens on social media, perhaps even more fatally when we’re able to hide behind a computer screen.