Future Shock
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| Author | Alvin Toffler |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Publisher | Random House |
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Publication date
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1970 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| ISBN | (Original hardcover) |
| Followed by | The Third Wave |
Future Shock is a book written by the futurist Alvin Toffler in 1970. In the book, Toffler defines the term "future shock" as a certain psychological state of individuals and entire societies. His shortest definition for the term is a personal perception of "too much change in too short a period of time". The book, which became an international bestseller, grew out of an article "The Future as a Way of Life" in Horizon magazine, Summer 1965 issue. The book has sold over 6 million copies and has been widely translated.
A documentary film based on the book was released in 1972 with Orson Welles as on-screen narrator.
Toffler argued that society is undergoing an enormous structural change, a revolution from an industrial society to a "super-industrial society". This change overwhelms people. He believed the accelerated rate of technological and social change left people disconnected and suffering from "shattering stress and disorientation"—future shocked. Toffler stated that the majority of social problems are symptoms of future shock. In his discussion of the components of such shock, he popularized the term "information overload."
His analysis of the phenomenon of information overload is continued in his later publications, especially The Third Wave and Powershift.
In the introduction to an essay entitled "Future Shock" in his book, Conscientious Objections, Neil Postman wrote:
"Sometime about the middle of 1963, my colleague Charles Weingartner and I delivered in tandem an address to the National Council of Teachers of English. In that address we used the phrase "future shock" as a way of describing the social paralysis induced by rapid technological change. To my knowledge, Weingartner and I were the first people ever to use it in a public forum. Of course, neither Weingartner nor I had the brains to write a book called Future Shock, and all due credit goes to Alvin Toffler for having recognized a good phrase when one came along" (p. 162).
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