Technology in Fiction

An interesting thought piece on the role of modern communication technologies in fiction. Money graf:

The average fictional character is either so thoroughly disinterested in email, social media, and text messages he never thinks of it, or else hastily mentions electronic communications in the past tense. Sure, characters in fiction may own smart phones, but few have the urge to compulsively play with the device while waiting to meet a friend or catch a flight. This ever-present anachronism has made it so that almost all literary fiction is science fiction, a thought experiment as to what life might be like if we weren't so absorbed in our iPhones but instead watched and listened to the world around us at a moment's rest..

Even science fiction isn't immune to this curious disconnect. They'll pay lip service to having the props of future settings, but it's rare for a book to explore how communication technology (or technology in general) is radically restructuring our communication with each other. The closest I've seen recently was David Suarez's Daemon and it does a good job of capturing the dichotomies between the connected and the not, and the exploitable vulnerabilities of those who have wired in without really understanding the system to which they now belong.