Cold Hearted Web 2.0?

William Davies writes in the Cold, Cold Heart of Web 2.0:

The same technological zeal and business acumen that once was applied to improving the way we buy a book or pay our car tax is now being applied to the way we engage in social and cultural activities with others.
In short, efficiency gains are no longer being sought only in economic realms such as retail or public services, but are now being pursued in parts of our everyday lives where previously they hadn't even been imagined. Web 2.0 promises to offer us ways of improving the processes by which we find new music, new friends, or new civic causes. The hassle of undesirable content or people is easier to cut out. We have become consumers of our own social and cultural lives.

Thanks to Joshua Porter of Bokardo for pointing to this, and related pieces: Gong Szeto on the subprime meltdown and Nicholas Carr on the Automation of Social Life.