In this week’s reading from Present Shock: When Everything Happens Now, the author, Douglas Rushkoff, discusses 3 more results of “present shock.”
In Chapter 3, Rushkoff discusses “Overwinding.” Overwinding is the process by which we try to cram larger timescales into smaller or non-existent timescales. In the section Mashup and Makeup Rushkoff gives the example of a person freezing their age with Botox, with the result being the loss of the ability to make facial expressions “in the moment” that reflect one’s current emotion. In this example, an attempt to preserve the “now” affects our relationships and ability to communicate and connect with others. He also suggests we can “springload” time into things. For example, Navy Seals put a lot of time into preparation and training for a mission that will “unwind” in a very short period of time, maybe only seconds. …show more content…
To do this, we draw connections between things (“fractal patterns”), which may or may not be accurate. One result of this behavior is conspiracy theories. With the internet, these theories are able to proliferate in a way that they haven’t in the past.
In Chapter 5, Rushkoff discusses the final result of or reaction to “present shock,” which he refers to as “Apocalypto.” This term refers to “a belief in the imminent shift of humanity into an unrecognizably different form.” Rushkoff suggests that people’s intolerance for “present shock” causes us to fantasize about some type of grand finale, such as a zombie apocalypse. “Preppers” plan for an uncertain future. Some suggest “technological evolution will outpace biological