In your writing, accounting for modern technology in your plots.

[Azuldrgon]

Smartphones. Smartwatches. Doorbell cameras. Etc. Modern gadgets and the internet can negate some plot conflicts that would've otherwise existed a decade or two ago.

Assuming you're writing a current-day story in a setting with the infrastructure...

- How do you account (or not account) for internet-connected devices in your plots?

- Do you feel you have to address the existence of gadgets, or waste words writing them off, to preserve certain aspects in a story? (Example: I feel like it's pretty common in movies today to see a character have to look at their phone and basically convey that there's no reception).

- On the other hand, does the relatively older Lit readership mean that no one is really asking, "Well, a Ring camera in this day and age would've solved that issue! Unrealistic!" Or, "Why didn't the MC just Google the guy? Unforgivable!"

- Is there a fine line between plausible and implausible?

I see my writings as moments in time.
If the tech matches the time, I'll include it. But most of the time I don't pay attention to what could be done because some folks are not as tech savvy as others.
I do try to make my scenarios as plausible as possible, but it depends on what I'm writing to be honest.

 

[alohadave]

The tech thing that actually dates the 2010 story mentioned the most is the guy trying to quit smoking but dismisses the idea of an e-cig, because of not wanting to suck on something looking like a Tampax applicator. I wrote it in 2020, just as vaping really took off with the attractive packaging to lure kids in.

For what it's worth, my wife quit smoking using a Nicotrol inhaler in 2004. It didn't have any emissions, but the concept was there. And vapes were introduced in 2007. At that time they were focused on helping people quit smoking before they figured out they could just use them to get the same high without smoke.

 

[TheWritingGroup]

Soon, pulling a handbrake will be obsolete, or putting a key into a car lock. Video doorbells I think have peaked, code locks for doors to allow and record multiple people entering are catching on. Restaurants where 80% of people through the door are Deliveroo drivers is a huge cultural/tech shift (after being able to order food delivery at all!), though I can't think of the erotic potential offhand...

Erotic potential? It's the classic porn plot: the delivery driver gets seduced by the customer.

The delivery service becomes a front for escorts (in a place where escorting is still criminalized)?

How about this: when sex-for-money is totally decriminalized (as in most of Australia), the food delivery/ride share service adds a third line of business, sex worker hookups. Or just hookups?

--Annie

 

[dirk2024]

Restaurants where 80% of people through the door are Deliveroo drivers is a huge cultural/tech shift (after being able to order food delivery at all!), though I can't think of the erotic potential offhand...

For an "extra personal service" from your driver for a 25% surcharge, click here.

Imagine being one of those drivers.

 

[Britva415]

I think the only appropriate use of emojis in a story is when directly quoting digital text (emails, texts, forum posts, etc.)

I hope fgs that that is what people were talking about, regarding how-to type them in a Lit story.

 

[dirk2024]

I think the only appropriate use of emojis in a story is when directly quoting digital text (emails, texts, forum posts, etc.)

I hope fgs that that is what people were talking about, regarding how-to type them in a Lit story.

That is what I was referring to. For me, it would be minimal usage.

 

[Britva415]

For an "extra personal service" from your driver for a 25% surcharge, click here.

Imagine being one of those drivers.

What do I get for 25%?

 

[TheWritingGroup]

What do I get for 25%?

That percentage of your [pauses to check author profile] penis gets stimulated by the driver.

--Annie

 

[Britva415]

That percentage of your [pauses to check author profile] penis gets stimulated by the driver.

--Annie

So, just the tip... that does add up.

 

[MrPixel]

Tech in modern settings might be worth more than a nod depending on your niche. If you write exhibitionist scenarios, at least in the US the past three years has seen explosive growth in generalized surveillance including automatic license plate readers and facial recognition, not to mention cheap "trail cams" in wooded areas. Being "merely" naughty in public carries a lot more risk than it used to even just five years ago.

 

[TheLobster]

How about this: when sex-for-money is totally decriminalized (as in most of Australia), the food delivery/ride share service adds a third line of business, sex worker hookups. Or just hookups?

 

[NaughteeDragon]

I actually like to use them to shortcut problems or create new ones. In a recent story the MC gets mad at her therapist and disconnects from their Zoom call. In a story I’m writing, FMC1 gets busted by her mother when the ring camera announces her boyfriend has arrived. In that same story FMC2 is dependent on that technology because she’s blind. However, it also leads to a situation where FMC2 and the MMC have to brainstorm to find somewhere to be together because their parents can track her phone for safety reasons.
Technology is just a new restriction to write around, and creativity is born of restriction.

 

[nice90sguy]

The topic of this thread has been occupying me recently. One of my stories written as recently as 2021 reads anachronistically in 2025.

Besides the "why didn't he just call her mobile?" pre-cellphone stuff (most of the "Colombo" plots wouldn't work today), the current major tech advances leading to GPT, Grok, Gemini have rendered most of my (I think cleverest) story about training an agentic AI almost quaintly dated. At the time I wrote it, I understood and even developed advanced AI models (not language models though). But I had no idea what was coming.

Thirty years ago (mid 90's) I wrote an article for a science journal about the successful, and failed predictions in science fiction. I asserted that the most far-fetched elements of Kubrik's "2001" was the depiction of HAL. I wasn't alone in this false prediction.

I'm sure there are stories here that feature people using GPT as an integral part of the story (rather than what I do, which is explore the impact of it on people).

If you've written or read any stories published here where people use chatbots naturally, the way people actually integrate them in their daily lives, I'd love some recommendations!

 

[ElectricBlue]

I see my writings as moments in time.
If the tech matches the time, I'll include it. But most of the time I don't pay attention to what could be done because some folks are not as tech savvy as others.
I do try to make my scenarios as plausible as possible, but it depends on what I'm writing to be honest.

I'm pretty much the same.

Provided the café has a decent machine that makes coffee, I'm fine. Tech is never important in any of my stories, so I rarely if ever refer to it.

 

[TheLobster]

Besides the "why didn't he just call her mobile?" pre-cellphone stuff (most of the "Colombo" plots wouldn't work today), the current major tech advances leading to GPT, Grok, Gemini have rendered most of my (I think cleverest) story about training an agentic AI almost quaintly dated. At the time I wrote it, I understood and even developed advanced AI models (not language models though). But I had no idea what was coming.

This will pass in a few years tops, when more people realize than underneath the facade of seemingly perfectly articulate answers from LLMs there is no real reasoning other than rudimentary pattern replication.

The lasting impact of the current wave of “AI” on fiction will be the long overdue elimination of robotic voices and odd syntax in fictional AI speech, perhaps with the exception of some in-universe justification (“She sounds strange because she’s an AI.” “Oh, right, forgot the government mandates that.”).

 

[Writer61]

So far, my stories have all been set somewhere in the last 30 odd years. I have not made much use of technology but I don't think I have used anything before its time. My most tech heavy piece is a story set during lockdown.