Future Shock - First Edition

Written in collaboration with his spouse Adelaide Farrell, Toffler's Future Shock became an international bestseller upon publication in 1972 and inspired a documentary film of the same name in 1972 with Orson Welles as on-screen narrator.

Toffler's main argument throughout the text is that the accelerated rate of technological and social change occurring in the emerging "super-industrial society" of the late 20th century will leave people disconnected and suffering from "shattering stress and disorientation", or future shock. 

Toffler stated that the majority of social problems are symptoms of future shock. In his discussion of the components of such shock he popularized the term "information overload." This analysis of the phenomenon of information overload is continued in later publications, especially The Third Wave and Powershift.