Writers: Ken Rosen (writer) Alvin Toffler (book)

Future Shock is a book written by the sociologist and futurologist Alvin Toffler in 1970. The book is actually an extension of an article of the same name that Toffler wrote for the February 1970 issue of Nature.^{[citation needed]} Also, it grew out of an article "The Future as a Way of Life" in Horizon magazine, Summer 1965 issue.^[1][2][3][4] The book has sold over 6 million copies and has been widely translated.

Future shock is also a term for a certain psychological state of individuals and entire societies, introduced by Toffler in his book of the same name. Toffler's shortest definition of future shock is a personal perception of "too much change in too short a period of time". The concept of future shock bears resemblance to the late 20th/early 21st century concept of "the technological singularity", and may have been influenced by Kuhn's concept of a paradigm shift.

A documentary film based on the book was released in 1972 with Orson Welles as on-screen narrator.

Term

Toffler argues that society is undergoing an enormous structural change, a revolution from an industrial society to a "super-industrial society". This change will overwhelm people, the accelerated rate of technological and social change leaving them disconnected and suffering from "shattering stress and disorientation" – future shocked. Toffler stated that the majority of social problems were symptoms of the future shock. In his discussion of the components of such shock, he also coined the term information overload.