Social Media Makes Real Life Better, But Fiction Worse
January 6, 2010 | Written by clarke
I read an article a few days ago about how a series of books for young adults written in the 1980s-90s are being reissued and updated to reference contemporary technology, meaning all the references to cassette players and land-lines would be replaced with (one imagines) iPods and cell phones in an effort to make the books more appealing and relatable to the current technology-savvy generation of pre-teens. This is all fine and well until you consider that the plots of almost all the books (which largely concern the trials of a team of capable thirteen year old babysitters in the suburbs) revolve around not being able to utilize the immediacy of technology in anxiety-provoking scenarios: not being able to get in touch with a sick child’s parents, or being snowed in without any grown-ups around for the weekend. As easy as it might be to inject some texting and g-chatting into these books, it’s much more difficult to reconcile the plots with the pervasive effect of 2000s technology.
In a roundabout way, this reminded me of a funny montage I saw awhile back that highlighted the way that the existence of cell phones have thrust a monkey-wrench into the plot devices of horror films, which universally rely on having characters isolated and cut off from civilization so they can be more easily picked off by the villain. The montage features clip after clip of horror movie characters realizing they mysteriously don’t get service in whatever location they happen to be stranded. The no-phone-service twist seems to be the only turn of events screenwriters have been able to dream up in order to create situations of true anxiety and danger in an era of constant connectedness.
Contemporary technology and social media certainly offer us convenience and immediacy, but they also homogenize daily life and lower the stakes of anxiety-provoking situations in entertainment and in reality. I suppose in real life this is a good thing, but in fiction, it’s just a boring thing.
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