Future Shock
Alvin and Heidi Toffler's 1970 book on too much change in too short a time.
At a glance
Key ideas
Super-industrial society, Information overload, Three stages …
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Alvin Toffler, Heidi Toffler and Neil Postman
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- The Tofflers define future shock as the stress and disorientation of too much change in too short a time.
- Society is moving from industrial to super-industrial, and the pace overwhelms people.
- They describe a culture of transience: disposable goods, renting, frequent job and home changes, and shallower relationships.
- The book popularised the term information overload.
Why it matters
- An early, best-selling account of accelerating change whose vocabulary is still used for life in the information age.
Key facts
- Authors
- Alvin Toffler, written together with his wife Heidi Toffler1
- Published
- 19701
- Grew from
- Alvin Toffler's article "The Future as a Way of Life", Horizon, Summer 19651
- Sales
- Over 6 million copies within five years; translated into twenty languages by 20031
- Film
- A 1972 documentary based on it, narrated on screen by Orson Welles1
Key ideas
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Super-industrial society1
A structural shift that leaves people disconnected and suffering "shattering stress and disorientation".
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Information overload1
Popularised as one of the components of future shock.
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Three stages1
Agrarian, industrial and post-industrial societies, each with its own "super-ideology".
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Transience1
Disposable goods, renting instead of owning, and frequent changes of job and home.
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Many careers1
People change professions because professions quickly become outdated.
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Death of permanence1
Everything from goods to relationships becomes temporary.
Connections
Links
Sources
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