Future Shock

by Alvin Toffler, Alvin Toffler

mass market paperback, 576 pages

English language

Published June 1, 1984 by Bantam, Random House.

ISBN:: 978-0-553-27737-1

(9 reviews)

Future Shock is a 1970 book by American futurist Alvin Toffler, written together with his spouse Adelaide Farrell, in which the authors define the term "future shock" as a certain psychological state of individuals and entire societies. The shortest definition for the term in the book is a personal perception of "too much change in too short a period of time". The book, which became an international bestseller, has sold over 6 million copies and has been widely translated.

3 editions

The Weaver Reads reviewed Future Shock by Alvin Toffler

Goodreads Review of Future Shock

4 stars

This is a decent book, published in 1970, that takes the insights from culture shock and applies them to those experiencing the acceleration of virtual everything. Toffler refers here to the transition from “industrial” to “super-industrial” society, and we would today find it recognizable as the “post-industrial” transformation. I suspect that the same process is taking place today in the transition to cybernetic society (to whatever extent we can consider them discrete units of time—it may well all be continuous).

There was one section that was effectively science fiction in 1970 and continues to be science fiction in 2024. Even so, it was a worthwhile read that maintains its relevance.