Present Shock (1 Viewer)

[Long Ball Larry]

Present Shock: When Everything Happens Now is a non-fiction work written by Douglas Rushkoff and published in 2013. The book introduces the concept of present shock, a state of anxiety in which people all live in as they try to keep up with the ever increasing speed and immediacy of time. The instantaneous nature of digital technology has shaped the way humanity perceives and deals with time. According to Rushkoff, rather than focusing on building a better future, society is primarily concerned with building a worthwhile present.[1] Rushkoff addresses brands, pop culture, news outlets and political movements, with particular attention to the post-Y2K era, in an attempt to explain the effects of presentism on modern humanity.

 

[Long Ball Larry]

I think that is only getting more true and continues to create a surfeit of anxiety and a deficit of attention.  The result is a populace so easily swayed because they have no mooring to reality.  The line between the abstract and the real grows ever more and the abstractors (including many technologists and intellectuals) perpetuate this cycle.  This dichotomy is far more fundamental than any wealth inequality.  And as technology continues to let us hyper scale, these gulfs will get worse and worse.  And we can never find a common ground because we are so personally fractured and can’t even find our own centers.