Have Google, Facebook, Amazon and Apple become so dominant in American life that it's time to break them up? The Justice Department and a recent Congressional report say yes — and so does our guest in this episode, journalist Noam Cohen.
A columnist for Wired and author of the book The Know-It-Alls, Cohen talks about his own journey when it comes to technology — from wide-eyed idealist to clear-eyed skeptic — while arguing that the real problem is the everyone-for-themselves philosophy that underpins the entire industry. The only solution, he says, is to fundamentally rethink the Internet.
"You look at Facebook and You Tube and Twitter today, and it's clear they're just oblivious to the harm they're causing," says Cohen.