New Collection Calls on Policymakers to Rethink Governing in the Digital Age

WASHINGTON, DC — The digital era has revolutionized human life. Everything from labor markets to personal relationships look different today thanks to digital technology, but policymakers have largely failed to keep up, continuing to apply stale rules to an increasingly novel world. A new American Compass collection, Lost in the Super Market: Navigating the Digital Age, explores how digital technology has reshaped our lives and how policymakers and citizens should begin to address these novel challenges.

The collection offers a framework for defining the types of challenges facing policymakers and then combines a comprehensive synthesis of contemporary research with sharp perspectives from leading writers in each area:

• Frictionless Exchange: What happens to markets as the digital age improves their efficiency and introduces them to new domains?
• The Attention Economy: What happens to media as the digital age enhances their ability to engage consumers?
• All-Knowing Algorithms: What happens to personal data as the digital age deepens their quality, widens their availability, and creates new uses for them?

Contributors to the collection include American Compass’s Oren Cass and Wells King, the Charles Koch Institute’s Neil Chilson, the University of Virginia’s Matthew Crawford, Modern Markets for All’s Wingham Rowan, the Progressive Policy Institute’s Alec Stapp, and Reason Magazine’s Peter Suderman.

Click here to read the full collection.