Future shock is too much change in too short a period of time.
Modern man feels shock from rapid changes.
We have become cities without a history.
Urban populations double every 11 years.
The overall production of goods and services doubles each 50 years in developed countries.
Society experiences an increasing number of changes with an increasing rapidity, while people are losing the familiarity that old institutions of religion, family, national identity and profession once provided.
There is a yawning gap between those who have ready access to information and communication technology and the skills to make use of those technology, and those who do not have the access or skills to use those same technologies within a geographic area, society or community.
It is an economic and social inequality between groups of persons, an electronic divide, a digital gap.
Many of us are “connected”: individuals, organizations, enterprises, schools, hospitals, countries, etc. by means of mobile or smart phones, the Internet or telephony, digital TV, SMS, social networks, etc.
The more intense the connection, the more sophisticated the usage.
We can access what we could not easily access before, retrieve that what was thought lost, interact with the world and make innovative contributions at the click of a mouse or press of a key.
So why are there still so many not connected?
People need access to computers, landlines and networks to connect to the Internet.
People need money to afford these computers, landlines and networks.
People need education to use these tools intelligently.
People need exposure to these tools which may explain why the younger generations are far superior in this regard to their older counterparts.
Too much information makes it difficult to discern what information is valuable as opposed to disposable information.
The ring of truth is lost in the cacaphony of noisy networks of non-stop data flow.
Since the 60s, and especially since the 80s, we use technology we do not understand fully.
We rush to embrace the latest technology regardless of its ultimate cost to us culturally or economically.
Who needs God?
He doesn´t have an email account, Facebook profile, hashtag or Twitter presence.
Who needs family when you have so many friends online?
Who needs nations if we have become a global community sharing the same information?
Who needs a profession when we have become a society that values the cult of personality more than the contribution of character?
Who needs history when it can be neatly capsulized into 120 characters whose memory fades long before today´s newspaper reaches the rubbish bin?
Is an efficient society necessarily by extension an effective society or a desireable one?
Gone it seems are the days when a man could just simply walk off the street and present himself and his credentials without first setting up previous electronic correspondence and arranging an appointment in the virtual world of the gigabyte.
A man is judged now by the size of his electronic footprint not his physical presence.
One need not ask who is the ghost in the machine.
One need only realise that the light at the end of the tunnel is a computer screen and we are the ghost reflected in its glow.