It's New Year, and to many people that means making resolutions. Most will be broken before long but it is still useful to think about them, as youth editors Alison Mouolds and Josh Tate discuss.

Alison's views

In a culture where the forced, mechanical and widely loathed practice of target setting' has invaded every business, school and institution across the country, New Year's resolutions remain a refreshingly personalised and liberating pastime, free from the pressures of striving to reach over-ambitious, authority-advised aims.

To the sceptics among us, such resolutions are an unnecessary throwback to a strangely persistent annual tradition.

They are seemingly entirely pointless, given that they are pledged in a hazy, drink-and-lethargy-induced state the morning after the most momentous of nights before' and are unlikely to be remembered - let alone kept - past the end of the month.

They often remain the same each year, yet despite the obviously unshakeable desire to tackle the problem, they are freely discarded with party poppers and plastic champagne glasses come January 2.

But even those disheartened by an early onset of Seasonal Affective Disorder must recognise the therapeutic potential of proclaiming that we will forego our follies and banish our beloved bad habits whilst comfortable in the knowledge that we have little intention or expectation of upholding them.

Furthermore, there's no obligation to - unlike the increasingly relentless driving force behind tyrannically-set targets, no-one even pretends to care whether we pursue our resolutions.

After all, whether or not we continue to gorge on chocolate or while away our precious hours following predictable soap storylines is of little concern to most!

As our seasonal enthusiasm begins to dull after the end of a fortnight of festivities, resolutions are the last staple of our Christmas calendar guaranteed to sustain the spirit of overly enthusiastic joy - well worth revelling in before settling back into the dull reality of day-to-day routines!

What Josh says

Everybody is thinking about how they want to change this year; what their New Year's Resolutions will be.

Give up smoking, give up gambling, lose weight, be more responsible, be more kind and so on.

But there is one that everyone can do: Be yourself.

It's the simplest one.

Lots of people these days hide behind a façade of work, or school, and don't show who they really are.

They essentially have two personalities, work life and home life. It's important to show who you really are in work or at school, so that people can get to know you better, and be able to have more fun with you, go out and have a good time with you etc.

Dropping your natural barriers around complete strangers can be hard, it can also be rewarding. If you act around new faces like you'd act at home, or with your mates, then you'll get the rewards of that - more friends, more fun, and more freedom to express yourself!

Break down your façade, and others will break down theirs too.

As you think of what changes you're going to make, think on how you can resolve your work life and home life into one, easy to manage, fun and happy life.