[drawkbox]

I was watching Planes, Trains and Automobiles the other day and much of the whole plot would not exist with modern tech.

Also, horror movies have a hard time now as well. For some reason they have to be so far away as to get no reception or in some sort of zone that won't allow it.

I think Under the Dome highlights this a bit as well.

But there are new plot lines and possibilities. At least flip phones have been removed from modern tv and movies, and computers/devices are at least more accurately represented.

[mynameishere]

"No signal"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XIZVcRccCx0

...I actually wonder why they don't just pretend cell phones don't exist. I mean, if you can imagine ghosts and zombies, etc, do exist, why not?

[jff]

I actually see that pretty often. When the movie requires it, people forget that they have cell phones. It's the same way the horror movie universe apparently doesn't have horror movies, or people would know not to split up or have sex while camping.

[icebraining]

...I actually wonder why they don't just pretend cell phones don't exist.

Because it feels forced. Ghosts and zombies are the premise of the stories, a thought experiment around which the plot unfolds. Pretending cellphones just don't exist feels like a contrived fix to the writer's inability to write a good plot. It's equivalent to a deus ex machina. Unless, of course, you can write a plot that hinges on the lack of cellphones - that could be interesting.

[rcthompson]

I assumed that flip phones and old laptops were eliminated because companies were stealth-marketing their (new) products by "encouraging" TV shows to have their characters use them. I'm pretty sure I've seen at least a few clear-cut "product demo" moments in some shows, where the camera spent a little longer than was really necessary showing the device and the character's interaction with it. See also the transition from "Action Movie OS" to real life operating systems.

[drawkbox]

Probably. The old phones before flip, home phones/office phones you could hang up all intensely. The flip phones replaced that with hanging up with the massive flip, but got annoying when everyone is using smartphones. Now when they hang up they can't tap the phone harder to hang up. A tension moment has been taken.

[rcthompson]

On the other hand, we, as the owners of similar devices, get to empathize with the characters' silent frustration at not having anything to slam down.

[icebraining]

Some of them are pretty blatant: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CLzMVMPd_4Y

"Don't believe me? Bing it!"

[rcthompson]

Yep, that's exactly the kind of thing I've noticed.