In his new book “Digital Vertigo,” Keen argues that the profusion of sharing online is harming society, dividing, diminishing, and disorienting humanity.

Andrew Keen took on the unruly Internet with his provocative 2007 book, “Cult of Amateur — How Today’s Internet is Killing Our Culture.” He advanced a thesis that mainstream media, copyrights, and the public trust are being compromised by the profusion of content on blogs, YouTube, and other venues. He described the situation as “ignorance meets egoism meets bad taste meets mob rule.”

In his new book, “Digital Vertigo,” Keen takes on Facebook and the social web. He argues that the profusion of sharing online is “killing our species,” dividing, diminishing and disorienting humanity. He maintains that a kind of “digital narcissism,” or exhibitionism, is becoming a salient feature of our culture, and that Facebook is “stealing the innocence of our inner lives.”

Sharing, or over-sharing, individual data, according to Keen, will lead to a generation of individuals without “mystery,” living more isolated lives and lining the pockets of the social network companies that turn their data into profit.

In the video interview above, Keen and I debate his notion that the social web is leading civilization off a cliff and “stealing the innocence of our inner lives.” Watch the video