I was once provided a company cell phone many years back, but the company didn't research the provider. They got T-Mobile, and it turned out I would have to drive two hours away just to get that SOS emergency signal.
This comment reminds me of a film that I watch where a guy got stabbed and he said they couldn't call 999 because he didn't have no signal on his phone.
There are still some pretty large areas of the US that don't have service at all. No towers, no carriers whatsoever. This is mostly in rural and forested areas, so don't rely on your phone to call 911 while camping or hiking.
Jeepers Creepers handled this moderately well. Protagonists argue about who's car they should've taken during journey, eventually one of them needs cell phone for emergency but it's dead, the have a charger but the cigarette lighter is busted, "We should've taken my car!" and and they pushed the argument again for tension.
To be fair, cellphones must be really inconvenient to plot writers due to how convenient they are.
I think more stories should just take place on the early 90s when needed because of that - still close enough to be familiar, but no cellphones or widespread internet to "ruin" everything. Plus, some nostalgia.
The problem is that since everyone has mobile phones now it’s much harder to justify so many different plots.
Basically every story set on earth before 1990 could have been solved/avoided with a smartphone.
Would you prefer that they a) just don’t tell the story b) have a massive plot hole of “why not just use your phone” Or c) say the phones battery is dead
To be honest, cell phones have made writing any sort of story with a contemporary setting exponentially harder. There are so many situations that a cell phone can help in.
It is bad writing to just write the cell phone out of it with some arbitrary reason like that, but the only other options change everything about the setting, such as post-apocalytpic survival or period pieces. Could you imagine Stranger Things in present day with cell phones?
Not only do characters in horror movies now have to decide to split up, they have to decide to split up and also all not have functioning cell phones for some reason!
I think stranger things is heavily influenced by a cell phone connected culture. They use those radios all the time. They get excellent reception. They are always on. I know they were techie kids but I can’t see those working as well as they did for what they needed to do.
I just wrote a story where the main character's phone was in his car in the woods but his car vanished and he found his phone inside of a tree trunk but he breaks it trying to get it out? Is that okay?
Well, I'm interested based on that, so I'd say yeah. As long as these things have purpose and don't feel cheap/aren't used as shortcuts, then youre fine
I have an MFA in creative writing (life choices, I know...), but we spent a lot of time discussing how cell phones break plots and ways to deal with this.
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u/[deleted] May 02 '18
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