The unfortunate truth is that we do seem to be becoming a more selfish society. There are several factors at play that seem to be pushing us in this direction.
First and foremost, we are becoming more isolated as people, with less and less face-to-face interaction every day. While the iPod is a nice technological device, it effectively cuts off individuals from the world. On the bus or train, at the gym, at work, at the grocery store, people are shutting out the world around them. The natural result of shutting out the world is that you will begin to think you are the only person IN the world.
Email and text messaging have similar effects. Instead of interfacing with people or picking up the phone to hear their voice, a short text or email is becoming the standard mode of communication. Again, others around us become less real and begin to simply exist as words on a screen. The human voice is losing it's usefulness.
Additionally, the internet culture is getting accustom to having everything NOW. If a file takes more than a few seconds to download, forget it. If a web site doesn't show up on the first page of a google search, it's not worth visiting. If a business's site doesn't allow you to do everything you need to do easily, you're moving on to the next site.
The other trend that seems to be happening in society is increased divisiveness. People are dividing off into religious, political, racial, and socio-economic sects. The more divided we become, and the more we are made to believe that our group is the RIGHT group, the less and less willing we become to help someone outside our sect.
The most unfortunate contributor to the growing selfishness of society is the rise to fame to such "celebrities" as Paris Hilton. Hilton and Nicole Richie starred in a television series that was based almost entirely on the premise that rich, privileged, selfish girls could cruise around middle America and make fun of real, hard-working people. As society watched...