/lit/ - Literature

Why does it feel so wrong to write about computers?

I've been using computers almost daily for more than a decade now and people who had access to them have been using them even longer. Yet, whenever I read a novel that talks about characters using computers, it comes off as instantly dated, like it's trying too hard to be edgy and "new".

If I'm trying to write a scene where a character is contacting someone, in 2013 odds are they'd be contacting that person via e-mail. But to say "She wrote an e-mail" seems so shitty. Actually putting the e-mail into the novel would be even shittier. So instead, everyone is still writing letters, making phone calls and having real life meetings like it's 1935.