future shock

American

noun

physical and psychological disturbance caused by a person's inability to cope with very rapid social and technological change.
any overload of a person's or an organization's capacity for adaptation or decision-making.

future shock Cultural

A sense of insecurity and disorientation often felt by people whose societies are undergoing rapid change.

Etymology

Origin of future shock

On the model of culture shock; popularized by a book of the same title (1970) by Alvin Toffler (1928–2016), U.S. journalist

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

The black-and-white future shock “Two People Exchanging Saliva,” directed by Natalie Musteata and Alexandre Singh, is an uneven Euro-art bath of unrealized intimacy and casual violence — kissing is punishable by death, slapping is currency — but is given exquisite tautness by the elegant, unrequited swooniness of stars Zar Amir and Luana Bajrami.

From Los Angeles Times

"Everyone is living in Alvin Toffler's world of future shock. Everyone is living in a world where they correctly perceive that they are part of a system which is no longer able to handle the information or handle the complexity that it has created."

From Salon

My diagnosis of the last 10 years in politics is that everyone is living in Alvin Toffler's world of future shock.

From Salon

That was a way to simplify the world for top decision-makers who faced what Alvin Toffler described as "Future Shock."

From Salon

And the man who once released an album called Future Shock, has some simple advice for us all.

From BBC

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023