Digital Contagion: 10 Steps to Protect Your Family & Business from Intrusion, Cancel Culture, and Surveillance Capitalism has just been published. As society becomes increasingly dependent upon digital technology, many new threats to safety and privacy originate from the digital realm. Big Tech collects data from nearly everything we do online before selling it and using it for behavior modification. Social media has been shown to harm the mental health of many users. Cancel culture threatens the platforms of many businesses and individuals.
Michael Matheson Miller, senior research fellow at the Acton Institute, takes a realistic approach to these problems. Acknowledging that there is nothing we can do to completely avoid these threats, he nevertheless proposes 10 practical steps that each person can take to mitigate them. Drawing on thinkers like Cal Newport and Neil Postman, his recommendations are easily actionable and do not require one to disconnect from society as we know it.
Miller proposes, finally, a broader vision for cultural and societal flourishing in a digital age, which he calls the “Tocqueville Option.” Building communities on human-centered institutions and creating technologies that decrease reliance on Big Tech and the state are key to this renewal. Miller challenges his readers to find innovative solutions that preserve freedom and human dignity in a rapidly changing world.
