Image by Niek Verlaan – Words by Martin Brisland.
Future Shock was a 1970 international bestseller by Alvin Toffler and Adelaide Farell.
They defined future shock as the psychological impact of “too much change in to short a period of time.” They argued that too much change as we moved to a post-industrial society eft people disconnected and suffering from “shattering stress and disorientation” and caused social problems. The book popularised the term “information overload.”
One thing for sure is that the pace of change has accelerated since 1970.
A quantum leap occurred on 9 January 2007 when Steve Jobs announced the first generation touch screen iPhone. By 2025, Apple alone had sold over three billion. If you add on the smartphones from other providers, then most of the world population of over eight billion have a smartphone.
Only twenty years ago we still left the house with a bit of cash, a basic Nokia in our pocket, and a rough idea of where everyone would be, and you arranged where to meet in advance.
In Southampton under the clock on the former Echo offices was a popular spot, before it was demolished for the Westquay development.
If someone was late, you waited a while then moved on. If plans had changed there was no easy way to get a message to you. If you wanted directions to somewhere, you printed them out, scribbled them on a bit of paper, or asked a local.
If you took photos, you did not take multiple shots of the same thing. You took your camera film to a shop to be developed. Half the fun was waiting to see how they came out.
There were no maps in your hand. No group chats and endless scrolling. No music, films, shopping lists, banking and latest news in your pocket.
But did we lose something too?
We lost the freedom of being out in the world and not constantly reachable.
We lost some privacy.
We lost moments that belonged fully to us, where we could get lost in the moment.
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