Lots has been said about social media by lots of different people.  Some of it is good, some of it is bad.  But it's impossible to deny that social media is an unstoppable driving force in today's society.  It is fast, persuasive and allows free speech like nothing else.  And it's those factors, combined with widespread adoption, that social media theorist Eric Qualman says are driving a movement for change comparative to the Industrial Revolution.  Here are a few of his reasons:

• In 2010 Gen Y grew to outnumber Baby Boomers
• 96% of them have joined a social network
• 1 out of 8 couples married in the US last year have met via social media
• Facebook added 100 million users in 9 months
• If Facebook were a country, it would be the world’s 4th largest
• 80% of companies are using LinkedIn as their primary tool to find employees
• 80% of Twitter usage is on mobile devices. People update anywhere, anytime. Imagine what that means for bad customer experiences?
• In 2009 Boston College stopped distributing e-mail addresses to incoming freshmen
• YouTube is the 2nd largest search engine in the world
• There are over 200,000,000 Blogs. 54% of bloggers post content or tweet daily.