Material technology changes faster than the norms and institutions meant to govern it.
Ogburn's 1922 term. Genetic testing, autonomous vehicles and social platforms have all arrived considerably faster than the law and norms governing them, which is the standard modern instance.
In practice
- Employment law written for a single employer and a workplace is applied to platform work by analogy for a decade before anyone legislates.
- A school's phone policy is rewritten every two years and is always addressing the app that mattered eighteen months ago.
- Further reading
- Wikipedia
- Subject
- Sociology & Culture
- Essay
- How societies hold together, sort people, and change