I just finished reading a fascinating business book titled “The Cult of the Amateur: How Today’s Internet Is Killing Our Culture.”
Author Andrew Keen’s premise is that the explosive user-generated content of Web 2.0 is taking an enormous toll on us. By leveling the playing field and allowing anyone to become an author/critic/reviewer, we lose the important distinction previously reserved for true experts. We don’t know what information we can trust and we unwittingly starve journalists, musicians, and other artists of compensation for their work.