Present Shock by Douglas Rushkoff:
• Explores the implications of the ever-increasing digitization of the world.
• Examines the issues of constant accessibility to information, ever-present demands on our attention, and how we can best manage these shifts.
• Analyzes the effects of a lack of temporal distance and narrative, the importance of understanding context, and how this influences cultural change and management.
• Learn how to effectively work and live in this "always-on" world through strategies of knowledge, time management, and narrative.
As a UX designer, this book is a great resource for helping us understand the habits of the people we are designing for. Related books to explore include The Design of Everyday Things by Don Norman and Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products by Nir Eyal.
🎀 Highlights
Do you know that nagging feeling that you’re missing out on something really important, even though you’re constantly checking social media and news sites? Or are you done with being online all the time and dream of running away to live in some sequestered cottage?
how digital media are transforming our personal lives, our culture and even our perception of time
blame the remote control if your biography resembles that of Bart Simpson rather than Luke Skywalker.
we all have multiple personalities nowadays;
planning and patience are no longer our strong suits;
Imagine you’re practicing tennis with a ball machine, when the machine suddenly starts shooting balls out faster and faster until you can’t keep up. That’s how cultural and technological
Imagine you’re practicing tennis with a ball machine, when the machine suddenly starts shooting balls out faster and faster until you can’t keep up. That’s how cultural and technological change has progressed for the last few decades.
Toffler predicted that we’d soon reach a rate of progress that was so fast we would enter a state called future shock.
Everyone was excited by the possibilities afforded by new technologies, like cell phones that let us talk to our friends, relatives or co-workers at any time.
In the twentieth century, we had a future-oriented view of technology. People obsessed over revolutionary inventions and business models they thought were on the way.
Toffler predicted that we’d reach a point where we wouldn’t be able to keep up, mentally or emotionally. We’d experience future shock – a kind of culture shock that happens within your own culture.
Future shock has turned into present shock.
We’re surrounded by change and lack a clear sense of direction, so we’ve given up on planning for a better tomorrow. Instead, we want everything now.
Few traders look for long-term investments, for instance,
Few traders look for long-term investments, for instance, preferring deals with instant benefits instead.
“When people stop looking to the future, they start looking at the present.”
We now prefer fragmented stories instead of linear stories, which adds to our disorientation.
Stories used to be laid out with a clear beginning, middle and end. Think of Snow White or Star Wars, for example. This is no longer the case, however.
stories followed a linear structure for centuries. They started with a hero the audience could identify with, like Luke Skywalker.
we now prefer a more fragmented form of storytelling.
technology enables this fragmentation even further. We can zip through the channels with a remote or switch to a new YouTube video whenever we like – we don’t have to stay on a continuous narrative. Digital technology distracts us, and distorts our identity and perception of time. Your smartphone enables you to do something your ancestors could never do: be in more than one place at a time. That’s great in some ways, but it also makes life more confusing. People conceived of time differently in the pre-digital era. They considered
family gets murdered and he sets out to become a Jedi.
stories are instruments of thought: they give order to the world around us.
People soon learned to distrust these stories, however, thanks to the politicians and advertisers who used them to manipulate us. Consider
People soon learned to distrust these stories, however, thanks to the politicians and advertisers who used them to manipulate
Our technology enables this fragmentation even further.
YouTube video whenever we like – we don’t have to stay on a continuous narrative.
People conceived of time differently in the pre-digital era. They considered time to be linear and thought they could only be in any one given physical space – where their body happened to be!
Today, each person has a collection of digital selves that take place in other spaces, though the spaces are no longer physical.
We can call our digitally fragmented identities digiphrenia.
Each “self” is unique and serves a separate purpose.
Consider a drone pilot who goes to work and kills people from the comfort of his office chair, then returns home safely to his family. This takes its toll: drone pilots are more likely to develop PTSD than pilots physically flying in Afghanistan.
We’re also taken out of our present environments by constant streams of what seem to be real-time information,
each notification refers to an event in the past, probably in a different place. And how often are these updates really important?
Your phone might even vibrate each time one comes in, repeatedly distracting you from the outside world.
“Whatever is vibrating on the iPhone just isn’t as valuable as the eye contact you are making right now.”
Young people imagine that life lasts forever. Yet when you zoom out, the whole of human history seems to have lasted just a moment.
there are several timescales, according to the writer Stewart Brand.
The outermost ring is for very slow developments like geological changes. It can take eons for a glacier to carve out a valley.
A culture usually lasts for about a millennium, like the ancient Mayan or Roman civilizations.
Within a given culture, fashions change even faster. Commerce and trade are driven largely by a society’s evolving tastes. All of these changes can be in process at the same time but they play out on various timescales.
When a culture declines, for example, it may be easier for a tyrant from another culture to take it over and alter the governance.
politicians, who should operate on the timescale of governance, often focus too much on immediate results like polls, which change very quickly like fashions.
state of present shock, however, has muddled our understanding of
state of present shock, however, has muddled our understanding of timescales.
We’re bombarded with information that takes us out of the moment and prevents us from thinking about the
We’re bombarded with information that takes us out of the moment and prevents us from thinking about the future, and we prefer story structures as fragmented as our daily lives. We even understand time differently. Our technology has changed our lives fundamentally – it has put us in a state of present shock.
Suggested further reading: Who Owns the Future? by Jaron Lanier Who Owns the Future?
We’re also taken out of our present environments by constant streams of what seem to be real-time information, like Facebook or Twitter notifications.
Do you know that nagging feeling that you’re missing out on something really important, even though you’re constantly checking social media and news sites? Or are you done with being online all the time and dream of running away to live in some sequestered cottage?
how digital media are transforming our personal lives, our culture and even our perception of time
blame the remote control if your biography resembles that of Bart Simpson rather than Luke Skywalker.
we all have multiple personalities nowadays;
planning and patience are no longer our strong suits;
Imagine you’re practicing tennis with a ball machine, when the machine suddenly starts shooting balls out faster and faster until you can’t keep up. That’s how cultural and technological
Imagine you’re practicing tennis with a ball machine, when the machine suddenly starts shooting balls out faster and faster until you can’t keep up. That’s how cultural and technological change has progressed for the last few decades.
Toffler predicted that we’d soon reach a rate of progress that was so fast we would enter a state called future shock.
Everyone was excited by the possibilities afforded by new technologies, like cell phones that let us talk to our friends, relatives or co-workers at any time.
In the twentieth century, we had a future-oriented view of technology. People obsessed over revolutionary inventions and business models they thought were on the way.
Toffler predicted that we’d reach a point where we wouldn’t be able to keep up, mentally or emotionally. We’d experience future shock – a kind of culture shock that happens within your own culture.
Future shock has turned into present shock.
We’re surrounded by change and lack a clear sense of direction, so we’ve given up on planning for a better tomorrow. Instead, we want everything now.
Few traders look for long-term investments, for instance,
Few traders look for long-term investments, for instance, preferring deals with instant benefits instead.
“When people stop looking to the future, they start looking at the present.”
We now prefer fragmented stories instead of linear stories, which adds to our disorientation.
Stories used to be laid out with a clear beginning, middle and end. Think of Snow White or Star Wars, for example. This is no longer the case, however.
stories followed a linear structure for centuries. They started with a hero the audience could identify with, like Luke Skywalker.
we now prefer a more fragmented form of storytelling.
technology enables this fragmentation even further. We can zip through the channels with a remote or switch to a new YouTube video whenever we like – we don’t have to stay on a continuous narrative. Digital technology distracts us, and distorts our identity and perception of time. Your smartphone enables you to do something your ancestors could never do: be in more than one place at a time. That’s great in some ways, but it also makes life more confusing. People conceived of time differently in the pre-digital era. They considered
family gets murdered and he sets out to become a Jedi.
stories are instruments of thought: they give order to the world around us.
People soon learned to distrust these stories, however, thanks to the politicians and advertisers who used them to manipulate us. Consider
People soon learned to distrust these stories, however, thanks to the politicians and advertisers who used them to manipulate
Our technology enables this fragmentation even further.
YouTube video whenever we like – we don’t have to stay on a continuous narrative.
People conceived of time differently in the pre-digital era. They considered time to be linear and thought they could only be in any one given physical space – where their body happened to be!
Today, each person has a collection of digital selves that take place in other spaces, though the spaces are no longer physical.
We can call our digitally fragmented identities digiphrenia.
Each “self” is unique and serves a separate purpose.
Consider a drone pilot who goes to work and kills people from the comfort of his office chair, then returns home safely to his family. This takes its toll: drone pilots are more likely to develop PTSD than pilots physically flying in Afghanistan.
We’re also taken out of our present environments by constant streams of what seem to be real-time information,
each notification refers to an event in the past, probably in a different place. And how often are these updates really important?
Your phone might even vibrate each time one comes in, repeatedly distracting you from the outside world.
“Whatever is vibrating on the iPhone just isn’t as valuable as the eye contact you are making right now.”
Young people imagine that life lasts forever. Yet when you zoom out, the whole of human history seems to have lasted just a moment.
there are several timescales, according to the writer Stewart Brand.
The outermost ring is for very slow developments like geological changes. It can take eons for a glacier to carve out a valley.
A culture usually lasts for about a millennium, like the ancient Mayan or Roman civilizations.
Within a given culture, fashions change even faster. Commerce and trade are driven largely by a society’s evolving tastes. All of these changes can be in process at the same time but they play out on various timescales.
When a culture declines, for example, it may be easier for a tyrant from another culture to take it over and alter the governance.
politicians, who should operate on the timescale of governance, often focus too much on immediate results like polls, which change very quickly like fashions.
state of present shock, however, has muddled our understanding of
state of present shock, however, has muddled our understanding of timescales.
We’re bombarded with information that takes us out of the moment and prevents us from thinking about the
We’re bombarded with information that takes us out of the moment and prevents us from thinking about the future, and we prefer story structures as fragmented as our daily lives. We even understand time differently. Our technology has changed our lives fundamentally – it has put us in a state of present shock.
Suggested further reading: Who Owns the Future? by Jaron Lanier Who Owns the Future?
We’re also taken out of our present environments by constant streams of what seem to be real-time information, like Facebook or Twitter notifications.
