Technology can make a story feel immediate and authentic, but it can also date a book faster than almost anything else. References to popular platforms, cutting-edge gadgets, and specific devices may seem perfectly natural today, but can become distractingly obsolete by the time readers discover your work. That doesn’t mean authors should avoid technology altogether, but simply that they should use it carefully to avoid unnecessarily tying their stories to a particular moment in time.

This week, Ginger looks at how authors can incorporate technology into their stories without quickly dating them. By focusing on what technology does, the problems it creates, and the human consequences of using it, authors can keep their fiction feeling contemporary without sacrificing its longevity. From avoiding unnecessary brand names to recognizing when period-specific details can add authenticity, these practical strategies can help ensure technology serves your characters and story without drawing too much attention to itself.

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Last week I wrote about how tackling contemporary events is the key to timeless fiction, and this week I want to flip that completely on its head. 

Previously, I’d argued that tackling contemporary events and politics can help create fiction that feels timeless. Write honestly about the world you’re living in, I suggested, and your stories might still resonate decades from now. 

However, there’s a dangerous flip side to that coin, and it’s called technology.

For example, the themes of one of the books I wrote about—Geoffrey Household’s Rogue Male—still feel achingly relevant in 2026. Yet many of the practical struggles our nameless hero goes through now seem almost quaint. 

Hiding away in a water tank on a ship? Booking transatlantic passage on an ocean liner? These details ground the story beautifully in its pre-World War II moment, but they can also make it feel alien to modern readers raised on smartphones and budget airlines.

The same principle applies to our own writing. Get too specific with today’s gadgets, platforms, and tech, and your book risks feeling dated before the ink is even dry.

(Sorry—I know, I know—but I’m going to mention James Bond again. Bear with me, however, because 007 is the perfect cautionary tale here.)

Ian Fleming’s original novels often feel charmingly retro not because of the espionage or the women or the martinis, but because of the stuff. Microfilm cameras, radio direction-finding equipment, and clunky cipher machines that might have been cutting-edge in the 1950s, but now read like museum pieces. 

That’s one reason many continuation novels by authors like Anthony Horowitz and Sebastian Faulks were forced to set their stories in a nostalgic 1960s “period” Bond universe. If they hadn’t, it would be difficult not to run into chronological conundrums like explaining how a secret agent operating in 2024 could also be a veteran of World War II.

In contrast, the most recent book from Ian Fleming Publications, On His Majesty’s Secret Service, deftly managed to feel contemporary simply by avoiding those specific references, such as Bond’s military service or any other hard timeline anchors that would pin the character down. It took the story, ignored the timeline, and just ran with it.

Tackling technology is a pitfall I believe self-published authors need to watch out for. In our rush to make our stories feel immediate and real, it’s often tempting to name-drop the latest apps, AI tools, social platforms, or gadgets (I know I do.) 

But technology moves fast! A book full of references to Twitter (pre-rebrand), specific iPhone models, or today’s hottest chatbot like Grok can feel obsolete in just a few years.

Just look at the James Bond movie GoldenEye, in which Bond girl Natalya Simonova demands what was (in 1996) the cutting edge of computer technology: “IBM compatible with 500-meg hard drive, CD-ROM, and 14.4 modem.” Today, that’s less powerful than what you’ve got on your phone!

Yet technology done right can also be one of your greatest assets.

There’s a flipside to this. When writing historical or period fiction, leaning into the technology of the era can help cement authenticity and nostalgia. In my recent article on the power of nostalgia, I wrote about how small, specific details from the past can transport readers and create emotional resonance. 

Think about a rotary phone that actually rings, cathode-ray tube televisions with limited channels, or the satisfying clack of a mechanical typewriter. These aren’t just props, they’re characters in their own right, shaping how people communicated, investigated, and lived in times-gone-by. This older technology can create friction and drama that modern tech often removes (think how many period thrillers could have been ended if the hero carried a mobile phone with him!)

The challenge for those of us writing in the present (or near-future) is finding that same authenticity without painting ourselves into a technological corner.

Ironically enough, in my recent article on the storytelling genius of the 007 First Light video game (which reinvented James Bond for a new generation) I failed to observe how the game also offers a masterclass in how to handle modern technology without falling into the trap of making the story instantly feel dated.

In the game, James Bond carries gadgets that feel genuinely contemporary—like a smartphone that can fire poison darts, and an Omega watch strap that doubles as a laser beam—yet these tools deliver the exact same functions as the gadgets from the 1960s and 1970s Bond films. The technology is new, but the capabilities and thrills are timeless. Q-branch simply updated the delivery mechanism!

And even though I’m referencing a video game, I believe that’s the same sweet spot we should aim for as self-published authors.

Incorporating technology wisely:

• Focus on function over brand names. Instead of saying your hero “checks Google Maps on his iPhone 17,” write that he pulls up his maps app. Readers will fill in the blank with whatever the current tech or app is, and your book won’t feel obsolete by the time the next model drops!
• Emphasize human friction and consequences. Technology should create problems as often as it solves them, and those problems should be timeless. 2001: A Space Odyssey and 007 First Light might have been written generations apart, but they both feature characters struggling against artificial intelligence. Timeless problems result in timeless books.  
• Use “evergreen” or slightly futuristic framing. Along the same lines, you should describe tools by what they do rather than what they’re called. For example, having your characters post to “social media” will help that concept last longer and feel less dated than using a specific description like Facebook (and I know this first hand, having written contemporary books in which my characters post to MySpace, a reference that already feels dated!)
• Research the fundamentals, not the flavor of the month. Understand how real technologies work—surveillance, data tracking, AI pattern recognition, drone capabilities—so you can use it effectively in your story. A lot of tech might operate differently today than it did decades ago, but will produce similar results (think of a hidden microfilm camera from 1960s compared to a hidden digital camera of today). This technique mirrors how the sci-fi greats I mentioned in my article on 5 science fiction classics from my father’s bookshelf managed to turn contemporary concerns into enduring metaphors by focusing on the “big picture” of how technology like AI impacts society.
• Consider the emotional and social layer. And that impact is everything. The best tech in fiction isn’t about the gadget itself. It’s about how it changes relationships, power dynamics, privacy, or identity. Your romance heroine discovering her partner’s secrets through a fitness tracker, for example, is an idea that will likely remain relevant for decades, even after specific products like a FitBit have gone the way of the Walkman.
• Beta test for datedness. Finally, when revising and finalizing your books for publication, ask early readers if any technology references pulled them out of the story or felt already-old. Self-publishing gives us the freedom to update eBooks quickly if needed, but it’s far better to future-proof these references from the start.

Writing about contemporary technology doesn’t have to be a trap. It can be an opportunity to explore the big questions of our age—privacy versus security, connection versus isolation, human agency versus algorithmic control—in ways that will still matter for decades to come. Just like the political themes I discussed in last week’s article, the key is to ground your story in the human experience rather than the technology that facilitates it.

But the good news is that, as self-published authors, we have a freedom to explore this concept in a way that we couldn’t through traditional publishing.

Indie authors can iterate, experiment, and release stories that feel alive to this exact moment without waiting for a committee’s approval or a publication date set months (or years) into the future.

We can write about the messy, exciting, terrifying intersection of human nature and rapidly evolving tech before it becomes obsolete, and trust that our readers will see themselves in it.

And ultimately, this has been proven by the books that have endured the ages without feeling dated. They didn’t ignore their era’s tools and technology. They just used it to tell deeper, more universal truths.

Rogue Male, for example, still works because our protagonist’s resourcefulness transcended the specific methods he uses to survive. Likewise, Ian Fleming’s Bond endures in our imagination despite (or sometimes because of) the retro gadgets Q equipped him with.

So embrace technology in your stories, but don’t let it drive them. Instead, let tech serve the characters with an eye toward the human experiences that result from embracing (or spurning) its use.

Your readers—whether today, or in decades to come—will thank you for it.

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