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Futureback Thinking
About Office Shock
Future Shock, Alvin Toffler’s landmark book,1 made the case that if one major change is happening in your life, you should avoid making any other major changes at the same time—or risk experiencing “future shock.” Toffler argued that individuals, and even societies, could be future shocked if they experienced “too much change in too short a time.”
Toffler was concerned about the dehumanizing effects of the Industrial Age, including technology and office work. Orson Welles, in the movie version of Future Shock that he directed, said:
Our modern technologies have achieved a degree of sophistication beyond our wildest dreams, but this technology has exacted a pretty heavy price. We live in an age of anxiety ...
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