Businesspundit: Why the Altruism of Web 2.0 Doesn't Exist

While I understand the author's concern about the sort of "leveling-down" of our attention spans and our ability to think deeply, I'm not sure its an all-or-nothing problem. It seems like every new generation of technology brings up this concern, and in a few years it is brushed aside as people become more jaded. Consider: Newspapers, Radio, TV, the Internets. Even Plato was pointing at similar worries about _writing— through his Socratic dialogues.

And the author's argument against altruism seems really pointless. Of course everything can be reduced to egoism. Everything I do, _I— do (for a _self_ish reason). Big surprise! He doesn't even allow his own second option of 'punishment' to stand on its own. His approach to the problem of social interaction simply forces us to reduce punishment into egoism.

It seems like the author's reasons for worrying just aren't good reasons. I'm not saying he should take up the Web 2.0 banner. But I'd like to see a more interesting analysis.