Being from the UK myself, I remember in 1999 ‘cellular’ phones were being used everywhere here in England. Pretty much all the kids had them at school and all the businessmen used them at work.

I also know that mobile phone technology was probably the only technological area where Americans – a few years back – were still lagging behind the British. Just like we lag behind the Japanese.

Not sure about the present catch-up rate. But perhaps this lead to the original poster’s confusion.

You mean this book…

Lee, Sol and Vix are on the run – from police, gangsters, parents… themselves. As they travel through Asia on separate quests, their paths cross. But it doesn’t matter how far you go, reality always catches up with you…

…which was published on 27/03/1998, more than four years after my first WGA registration for the short film that would become the movie, and a year after the original spec script, which you can read in the Library? That book? Because I just looked it up off the link you provided, and beyond the title, I don’t see the connection. In fact, most of the reviews tend to focus on the book’s similarity to the work of Alex Garland. Maybe he’ll write into Lewis’s blog and hurl accusations.

Anonymous, you’re accusing me of ripping off a book that didn’t yet exist, which I guess involves some sort of time travel.

But if you’re in fact Simon Lewis, maybe you’re hoping to sell a few copies of your book.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Go-Simon-Lewis/dp/0552147176/ref=sr11?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1218230122&sr=8-1

It’s Clay Shirky’s book HERE COMES EVERYBODY, chapter 4 (“Publish, Then Filter”), in the section “Revolution and Coevolution” starting on page 104.

If you look for the book in Google Book Search, you can search for the heading “Revolution and Coevolution” and it should show you the relevant excerpt. I recommend the book, however, not only for that particular discussion, but for the larger examination of where the culture of online social communities is taking us.

First primitive designs: 1843 – Alexander Bain 1865 commercial FAX system Lyons to Paris (metal plate type)

1902 – Arthur Korn (Fore-runner of modern type) 1907 – Arthur Korn (Commercial system)

1925 – AT&T (Wirephoto) (you still see this with AP Wirephoto) 1935 – William Finch Fax Newspaper 1948 – Twentieth Century-Fox movie (Call Northside 777) with Jimmy Stewart 1953 – Finch’s Company goes bankrupt attributed to TV news.

1980’s – When they became ‘popular’for business. Early 90’s modem/fax boards for PC’s come into their own.

BTW, The first Cell phone I can remember is in-car. 1960’s Batmobile Bat-phone. During the 80’s there were the in-car ones and the portables (powered by a lawnmower battery) By the 90’s there were the ones that are Big Bricks that are similar to a modern Sattelite phone. Then the late 90’s the mini-bricks were out (Which I miss). Pagers were popular in the late 80’s to early 90’s.

As for the web, I used E-mail back in 1990 or 1991. I also played text adventures (Hitchiker’s Guide to the Galaxy ruled), and also things like Pong. You can date any movie that had (at the time) modern elements. Princess Bride is a good example: great movie, but the atari baseball shows it’s age.

An example of dating for me was when a few years back a friend bought me some Christmas videos: Die Hard, of course. He is smoking at the airport. Well it struck me because I remember when : you could smoke on a plane which changed to you could smoke only if the flight was over 2 hours. That later changed to, only in the airport, then to outside, and now you probably get charged as a terrorist if you light anything within a mile of an airport.

But generally, texting on screen presents a challenge similar to scenes of computer use. I wrote an episode of the old Disney Channel show “So Weird,” which was about a girl who had a website about supernatural phenomenon. I was proud of myself for finding a way to visualize an IM conversation that didn’t involve making the audience watch words being typed onto a screen. But of course, my “solution” would have required additional location work and extras casting, so in the final version we see — words being typed onto a screen. Sigh.

Agreed. I think movies should reflect the culture they are exploring, and technology is a huge part of our world. To ignore it would be just wrong. Even if it looks “dated,” who cares? The whole point is you should be able to look back and say, “Yup. That’s what it was like.”

In terms of thrillers, I’m sure in a few years we’ll realize we were all just limiting ourselves in the way we think we can break or bend the rules to accommodate technology. Some movie will come along that will find a fix, which will open up several doors to new, creative ways to use say, a text message, in a movie. Everyone says you can’t do something until it happens, you know?

On the other hand: Though I believe it was a wire, and not a phone, a great movie that avoided the “just use technology!” scenario is “Ransom.” The bad guys are one step ahead, know Mel Gibson will have a wire on him, and send him to a pool where he’s forced to jump in, therefore ruining the tech. So it doesn’t always have to be battery/signal problems, and the solution can actually come from — wait for it! — character!

Very interesting topic here.

Generally, I agree with Rafael — this stuff will blend into the background pretty soon now, the way that computers and the internet have. I love going back and seeing early, well-conceived onscreen uses of computer network technology, like WarGames and Jumpin’ Jack Flash. (Then there’s the car phone — ??!! — in the original Sabrina.) Those films don’t feel dated to me, although you can certainly date them, because their uses of technology are accurate for their time. Films that seem dated are the ones — can’t think of a good example right now — where the filmmakers made a fake interface rather than using a normal one (usually with big blocky letters that took up the whole screen), or where they made “computer experts” or “computer hackers” out to be magicians. “Gosh, these computers can do anything nowadays, can’t they?” “Yes, sir, now just give me thirty seconds to break into the NSA database….” — that kind of thing.