Line #72 Main/LongRunnerTechMarchesOn


1	In a LongRunner series set in the PresentDay, contemporary technology quickly becomes dated as TechnologyMarchesOn, and the writers quietly bring in new gadgets appropriate to the year. This normally works fine until you start watching reruns of early episodes and notice how dated everything is to what ''was'' the present when they first came out.
2
3	If the storyline is still meant to be set at roughly the same time as the early episodes, then this can trouble the viewer or reader's WillingSuspensionOfDisbelief.
4
5	In RealLife when these episodes were written, tech that we now take for granted was just appearing, and the show would reflect this, showing everything from big desktop computers, CD-[=ROMs=], the Internet, cell phones and what-have-you as the latest thing. Fast forward years later, and in order to keep up with the real world, the characters are now using laptops, [=iPods=], broadband Internet, smartphones, etc.
6
7	But wait, that episode that came out 15 years ago ''was set only a year or two ago in the series' storyline''. How is it that the characters were touting tape decks as the next big thing, yet only a short time later older members of the cast are reminiscing about their old Walkmans, and younger members have no idea what a cassette ''[[WhatAreRecords even is]],'' even though they were the ones lugging them around back in the first few seasons?
8
9	The trope only counts when the characters of the series don't obviously age, and/or it is shown that the series is set around the same timeframe throughout. Drawn media (such as comic books and animation) and written media are the primary culprits -- live-action shows normally let time progress as it does in the real world, e.g. events from four seasons ago are stated to have happened four years ago in-universe.
10
11	This is a SubTrope of ComicBookTime, {{Long Runner\|s}}, and TechnologyMarchesOn. Sister Trope to NotAllowedToGrowUp, PresentDayPast, and WebcomicTime where the passage of time in-universe does not keep up with the span of publication in real life. See also {{Zeerust}}, where a "futuristic" design element is outdated by the real-world march of technology, materials science, aesthetics and/or social values, and CosmeticallyAdvancedPrequel, where a chronologically-earlier installment in a series looks ''more'' modern than its predecessor(s) due to advances in [=VFX=]. Compare UnintentionalPeriodPiece.
12
13	!!Examples
14
15	[[foldercontrol]]
16
17	[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
18	* The animated version of ''Manga/SazaeSan'' [[RecycledScript recycles most of its scripts]] every few years, updating clothing styles and appliances as appropriate.
19	* ''Manga/AhMyGoddess'' (the manga version). The TV series [[LampshadeHanging hangs a lampshade]] on this when Belldandy comments on Keiichi still keeping his old appliances from the '80s in mint condition.
20	* ''Manga/CaseClosed'':
21	** The manga has a particularly hard time of this, due to suffering from an extreme case of ComicBookTime. The series has run since 1994 for about three decades, but WordOfGod claims that only ''about six months'' have passed in the story. (There's a ''lot'' of trouble with that statement, including the number of holidays we've seen, and the changing of the seasons. And that's not even considering the sheer number of important cases that have occurred. Even condensing the series down just to its plot and character relevant episodes and ignoring repeated holidays/seasons renders enough time passage to fill well over a year.) Either way, the widespread use of cellphones and personal computers became adapted into the stories concurrently, which created some interesting problems. An early episode had a lunchbox-sized portable fax-machine qualify as an awesome gadget, while a more recent episode had a writer's lack of familiarity with cellphones used as proof that he hadn't left his attic in years. And canonically, those two incidents were -- at most -- three months apart.
22	** PlayedForLaughs in ''Anime/LupinIIIVsDetectiveConanTheMovie''. Inspector Zenigata reveals that at this point, Lupin has started ''texting'' him about his intentions to steal certain items, and everyone seems incredibly shocked that Zenigata even owns a cell phone.
23	** This became ridiculous when there was a ''flashback case'', ergo, a story that's supposed to have happened prior to the series beginning, that required the use of a phone that had ''video recording capabilities''. Meanwhile we're supposed to believe that chapters containing characters in possession of pagers happened afterwards. Right.
24	** Parodied in a comedy spinoff of ''Case Closed'', ''Manga/DetectiveConanTheCulpritHanzawa'', starring the shadowy figure that represents the killer. In the first chapter, he attempts to use the train, but the ticket turnstile keeps changing with the times ''as he is using it'', so he cannot figure out where to put his ticket.
25	* Applies to ''Manga/{{Kochikame}}''. Over the years, the manga updates consumer tech from home computers to cell phones. There are some elements of sci-fi tech such as humanoid police robots.
26	* ''Manga/WanderingSon'' began in the early years of TheNoughties, which was a fast paced decade for technology, thus this is inevitable for a SliceOfLife. For example, early on few characters had cellphones but in later chapters most characters do (and eventally Takatsuki switches from flip-phone to a smart-phone). There's also a case of TechnologyMarchesOn where in the manga, in a volume that came out in 2006, two characters record their voice using a tape recorder. Cut to the 2011 anime adaptation and the scene is changed to them using their cellphones instead. The series lasts from elementary to high school, so the slow change in tech is a bit more realistic compared to other examples.
27	* People in the world of ''Anime/PokemonTheSeries'' have surprisingly begun to implement current technology in the later series, despite the series starting in the '90s and the passage of time remaining ambiguous after the Kanto saga (which is approximately one year long). This includes giving James a tablet with the new Rocket logo on the back, and characters using smartphones. The blocky picture phones of the early seasons have also smoothed down with time.
28	** PlayedForLaughs in the 2019 series, where Team Rocket's newest hideout is hidden under a phone booth, which were a common sight in the original series. When Ash's new travel companion, Goh, finds them there he is utterly bewildered by what it is, with a flabbergasted Meowth pointing out that modern kids don't even know what a phone booth is these days.
29	* ''Manga/SkipBeat'' began continuously running since February 2002, but it's stated that barely a year has passed since the beginning. In earlier chapters, everyone used a flip-phone. More recent chapters have showed characters having upgraded to using smartphones now, though Kyoko still retains using a flip-phone. Justified in her case, as her cellphone was a gift from LME to be able to contact her about jobs, and Kyoko wouldn't dream of asking for a more expensive phone if the flip-phone suffices.
30	* Played with in ''Anime/HisCooolSehaGirls'': [[Platform/SegaDreamcast Dreamcast]] can connect to the Internet wherever and whenever she wants, but can use only sluggish dial-up (in an age where Wifi and broadband are the norm). She also prefers to connect only during certain times to avoid running a fee, on account of [[MythologyGag being from a poor family]].
31	* Zig-zagged in ''Manga/HunterXHunter'': Shalnark's [[WeaponSpecialization weapon of choice]], a brick-type cell phone that could mind-control people and instructions given out via texting, was not changed over the years the manga has remained in publication. That being said, hand gestures for texting today remain similar to back then, and the phone itself is unusually flat and rectangular for a brick phone, so when the phone reappeared in a story arc in 2015, the manga depicted as few shots of its front as possible, with most shots of the phone from behind and the user rapidly tapping the front of it. That being said, it's played straight with other people's phones, with smartphones popping up with increasing frequency, though a few other characters still have the phones they originally had. The internet has also become far more accessible and not just the domain of specific characters like [[{{Otaku}} Milluki]], as it was at the start of the series.
32	* ''Manga/CardCaptorSakura'' came out in TheNineties, was set during what was then ThePresentDay, and the technology and such were the type available at that time: Sakura had a CRT television in her room, and she and Tomoyo used cell phones that had buttons and flipped open. When ''Manga/CardCaptorSakuraClearCard'' came out, it was TheNewTens, but InUniverse, it's only a year or two after the original series ended (so late in TheNineties). Yet Sakura now has a flat-screen TV in her bedroom, uses Skype (or something similar), and has a smartphone.
33	* Played with in ''Manga/NagasareteAirantou.'' When Ikuto was shipwrecked in 2002, he brought with him a Gameboy Advance which had to be powered by AA batteries. His sister later arrived on the island, which in-universe took only around four months, but happened over 10 years into the manga's serialization. When she locates her belongings, she mentions bringing a smartphone and a 3DS, prompting Ikuto to ask what smartphones and 3DSes are.
34	* ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventure'': ''[[Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventureStoneOcean Stone Ocean]]'' is set in 2011 and written from 2000 to 2003. Cell phones rarely appear, and are solely depicted as Nokia style non-flip phones, though admittedly slimmer than other cell phones of the era. Naturally, there are no smartphones whatsoever either, despite the fact that they were becoming fairly ubiquitous by the early 10s. In contrast, ''[[Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventureJoJolion JoJolion]]'' is also set in 2011 of an AlternateContinuity, but it had started being written in 2011. Cell phones, both flip and smart, are frequently employed, with one character's Stand even using cell phones and the internet.
35	* ''Anime/YuGiOh'' The Original series started out with Battle Boxes, eventually advanced into Duel Arenas, then eventually the Duel Disk. The duel disk technology used in every sequel is based on the technology at the time they're aired in, comparable to how smartphones became sleeker, affordable, more high tech, and much more compact in every generation. Dialled to the absulute extreme in the Darkside of Dimensions movie, as Kaiba Corp have not only invented complete virtual reality arenas with virtual opponents, but Kaiba develops a pod that lets him travel between dimensions to reach the Afterlife. For reference, the movie is set a mere six months after the end of the manga; a manga that lasted maybe a school year long tops and began with Yugi and Jonouchi lending VHS tapes to one another.
36	* {{Conversed}} in Chapter 61 of ''Manga/MonthlyGirlsNozakiKun''. SequentialArtist Nozaki shows Sakura a LongRunner series where the heroine [[ComicBookTime has only moved up one grade in 20 years of run]], but during that "year" the technology moved forward from pagers to smartphones.
37	* ''Manga/{{Yotsuba}}'' takes place over the course of one year, but since it's been running continuously since 2003, it makes use of a floating timeline to keep it up to date with modern society. As a result, the technology seen throughout the series progresses in step with that of the real world. For instance, Yotsuba visits an electronics store full of flip phones in September, and her father buys a smartphone two months later.
38	* ''Manga/GreatTeacherOnizuka'': The fashion trends, pop culture, and level of technology in the original manga are implied to be from the late-1990s and the early-2000s, during its original run. ''Shonan 14 Days'', however, feels more at home in the late-2000s and early-2010s (when it was published), which is jarring as it's supposed to be set [[{{Interquel}} between major events in the original manga]]. Likewise, ''Paradise Lost'' is set in a decade where social media, smartphones and tablets are the norm, despite being set in the immediate school year after the original.
39	** Another noticeable example is Uchiyamada's Toyota appearing as a late-2000s Crown Royal in the opening pages of ''Shonan 14 Days'', only to inexplicably revert to the original Cresta design in following appearances in the manga. ''Paradise Lost'' finally officiates the Crown Royal as Uchiyamada's car.
40	* ''[[Manga/KocchimuiteMiiko Kocchimuite! Miiko]]'' The series frequently referencing years passing per volume due being serialized monthly, and it's been running since late eighties. It has the technology, appliances, clothing, pop-culture references and inclusion of societal and current issues updated as appropriate to the year the chapters were written on.
41	[[/folder]]
42
43	[[folder:Asian Animation]]
44	* ''Animation/PleasantGoatAndBigBigWolf'': The characters don't have phones in the early 2000's seasons, but they begin using phones in later seasons from TheNewTens. There's no InUniverse explanation for them suddenly getting phones.
45	[[/folder]]
46
47	[[folder:Comic Books]]
48	* ''ComicBook/ArchieComics'': The characters don't age, but the technology is always up-to-date. It's not something that's just quietly slipped in either; a strip in the late 80s saw Veronica replacing her record collection with CD's, and in a later one Archie's parents reminisced about the days of dial-up. The ultimate example (for a while) was Archie's AllegedCar, which for the first four decades of publication was the same beat-up red [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Model_T Ford Model T]]- literally the very first affordable consumer car ever made, and so old it had a ''hand crank start.'' [[ICallItVera He named it "Betsy."]] In the 40s it was reasonable he'd be driving one of those if he was driving at all, since at that point the Model T still held the record for most units sold. In 1972, though, it was dethroned by the VW Beetle, and as the years went on it started looking more-and-more out of place among the other characters' contemporary rides. Eventually in 1983 Betsy was put out to pasture and replaced by a [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Mustang_(first_generation) mid-60s Mustang,]] which solved the problem for a while- but lately that car has ''also'' become a bit of a historical relic. Poor Archie can't catch a break.
49	* ''ComicBook/{{Batman}}'': At the start of his career, a radio small enough to fit in Batman's belt buckle that could be used to send Morse code was bleeding-edge. Nowadays he has his own satellite network. Modern stories set in Batman's past tend to fuzz technological details by avoiding showing specific tech. Fortunately a [[TalkToTheFist punch to the face]] has always been a punch to the face.
50	* ''ComicBook/DisneyMouseAndDuckComics'': While [[RetroUniverse aesthetically with many bygone elements]], the level of technology is always assumed to be contemporary ([[ReedRichardsIsUseless not counting]] Gyro Gearloose and other inventors occasionally [[SerialEscalation pushing it well beyond that]]), so that cell phones or desktop computers may crop up in more recent stories. A notable exception are the stories by Creator/DonRosa (active from 1987 to 2005) which are always either set in the timeframe "late forties [[TheFifties to]] [[TheSixties early sixties]]" (the time in which Creator/CarlBarks created his classic stories), or are [[ComicBook/TheLifeAndTimesOfScroogeMcDuck prequels taking place at very specific dates in history]].
51	* ''ComicBook/JanJansEnDeKinderen'': The comic has run since 1970, and firmly uses tropes like ComicBookTime and NotAllowedToGrowUp to keep the characters at the same age, but since it's always set in "the present" social and technological changes have been introduced over the years, such as the internet, cellphones, laptop computers etc.
52	* ''Franchise/MarvelUniverse'': The Marvel Universe is actually more prone to this than DC, which {{Cosmic Retcon}}s its continuity every couple of years nowadays, making it so that whatever 1940s Batman or Superman stories that currently still count might have happened last year. Marvel has it particularly bad with those characters -- [[ComicBook/SpiderMan Peter Parker]], [[ComicBook/IronMan Tony Stark]], [[ComicBook/FantasticFour Reed Richards]] -- who work with fantastic technology, the earliest issues of whose comics involved technology which often wasn't so fantastic 10 years ago or so, when the ComicBook/FantasticFour took their ill-fated space flight to the Moon (to beat the Russians), and contemporary Marvel continuity began. A prime example? Reading the original Iron Man appearance, one might be amused to discover that the secret to his suit's power was "highly miniaturized transistors", and he had a phone built into the suit... with a rotary dial on the chest.
53	** In one flashback to the original Avengers team (published in the sixties but, due to ComicBookTime, will always be "ten years ago" in universe), Captain America refers to Rick Jones using shortwave radio (which he was in the original story), and Iron Man corrects him that it's social media.
54	* ''ComicBook/{{Shazam}}'': Billy Batson's broadcast career went from radio to TV and finally to podcasting (that last also a turn towards realism due to the much lower barrier to entry) and Freddy Freeman's mobility aids have come in for some updates.
55	* ''ComicBook/{{Supergirl}}'': Supergirl was created in the late Fifties. In one of her modern adventures a group of super-villains used a mobile app to track her location.
56	* ''ComicBook/{{Superman}}'':
57	** The comics started out as a [[TheGreatDepression Great Depression-era]] comic. Now, they have the latest iMacs.
58	** Clark Kent's job at the Daily Planet deserves special attention. Originally, he worked there so he'd be aware of disasters happening as soon as possible; as Superman's powers increased and he gained super-hearing and super-vision, that didn't hold water any more, so now he worked there because he thought he could do good influencing public opinion as Clark Kent, and it was a job where nobody would question him always being close to dangerous events and frequently disappearing when something big happened. Meanwhile, the Daily Planet itself changed with the times, always reflecting whatever a modern newspaper would be like -- most notably, the Planet's online presence has gone from nonexistent to being their primary focus. Finally, the changing role of newspapers themselves as news delivery systems has led Clark to quit his job twice; once to become a TV anchorman and once to become an independent news blogger.
59	* ''ComicBook/WonderWoman'': When the comics [[ComicBook/WonderWoman1942 first started out]] Wonder Woman's invisible robot plane had a very advanced auto-pilot and, despite being a SpacePlane, was propeller driven. She and the Amazons also used "mental radios", which functioned like bulky transportable {{Video Phone}}s. The plane has been jet propelled for decades now and the mental radios were written out even before cell phones became so common that nearly everyone has a sleek VideoPhone in their pocket these days.
60	* ''ComicBook/XMen'': Cerebro, the mutant-detecting computer, first appeared in the '60s using punch-cards and tape drives. It has wildly fluctuated in both appearance and capabilities throughout the years before everyone just went with the device's portrayal in the movies, a hollow ball-shaped room.
61	[[/folder]]
62
63	[[folder:Comic Strips]]
64	* ''ComicStrip/HiAndLois'': Look at the photo on [[Website/{{Wikipedia}} The Other Wiki]] [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hi_and_Lois here,]] and compare the TV to the modern TV the family has now, not to mention the other conveniences that they have.
65	* ''ComicStrip/Blondie1930'': The Bumstead family has been around for decades, and (as noted on the main page) has stayed the same age since the 1940s. However, the family now owns a flat-panel LCD screen and keyboard, presumably attached to a computer of some sort. And a bit of changing values, too: Whereas Blondie was a simple housewife early in the comic, in the '90s she finally got her own job, running a business no less (as a caterer).
66	* ''ComicStrip/DickTracy'' justifies it with industrial magnate Diet Smith supplying Tracy's tech with continual upgrades.
67	* ''ComicStrip/FoxTrot'': The iFruit computer was originally shaped like an apple or pear to parody the iMac, but after a while it started being depicted as a flat-screen monitor like most desktop computers these days.
68	* ''ComicStrip/{{Garfield}}'' has been around since the late '70s, and in recent strips, the old, bulky TV has been replaced with a thin flatscreen, and many current gags involve smartphones.
69	* ''ComicStrip/{{Zits}}'' began in 1997, when CD players were common and few people (especially teens) had cellphones. Later on, Jeremy said being the only kid at school without a phone made people think he was Amish. And since the 2010s, smartphones and social media have become ubiquitous.
70	[[/folder]]
71
72	[[folder:Films -- Animation]]
73	* ''WesternAnimation/HeyArnoldTheJungleMovie'' takes place a year after ''WesternAnimation/HeyArnold'' ended over a decade earlier. Bob's business is on its last legs because pagers have been replaced with cellphones and Rhonda is shown using the internet on her smartphone. Yet, the film still keeps an edge of RetroUniverse with the characters still dressing like it's the 1990s and Arnold keeping his walkman.
74	* ''[[WesternAnimation/InvaderZimEnterTheFlorpus Enter the Florpus]]'', the BigDamnMovie of ''WesternAnimation/InvaderZim'' which aired in 2019 (nearly 20 years after the original series ran and ended), now features smartphones and apps, and a joke about how no one reads newspapers anymore, all of which wouldn't have been possible when the show was first on the air. Similar references and jokes have also been present in the ''Zim'' [[ComicBook/InvaderZimOni comic series]], which began publishing in 2015 and once dedicated a whole issue to Zim and GIR getting obsessed with binge-watching a show.
75	[[/folder]]
76
77	[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
78	* Done in ''Film/TheBourneSeries''. In ''Film/TheBourneIdentity'' (2002), all the mobile phones are late-90s basic phones and we see [=PCs=] with massive CRT monitors. By ''Film/TheBourneSupremacy'' (2004), we start seeing early smartphones and [=PDAs=], such as the HP [=iPaq=] used to ID Bourne's (faked) fingerprint, and flatscreen monitors. ''Film/JasonBourne'' (2016) features then-recent smartphones and mobile apps, with a subplot involving a social media CEO.
79	* ''Film/MissionImpossibleFilmSeries'': The first ''[[Film/MissionImpossible1996 Mission: Impossible]]'' (1996) featured the then-current computer technology of the mid-90s. As the franchise went on, computer technology upgraded with it, such as ''Film/MissionImpossibleGhostProtocol'' (2011) and ''Film/MissionImpossibleRogueNation'' (2015) prominently featuring tablet [=PCs=] and other smart devices. ''[[Film/MissionImpossibleDeadReckoning Dead Reckoning]]'' takes a step further into ScienceFiction territory with a [[GrewBeyondTheirProgramming rogue]] [[AIIsACrapshoot artificial]] [[ArtificialIntelligence intelligence]] as BigBad.
80	* Also naturally a part of the longest-running film series of them all, ''Film/JamesBond.'' James Bond starts the series with the classic "gadgets from Q" - weapons and espionage tools disguised as everyday objects like watches and pens. In ''Film/TomorrowNeverDies'' we get our first phone - mobile phones were fairly rudimentary in 1998 so this one still mostly functions as a "bland everyday object with cool spying features". By ''[[Film/CasinoRoyale2006 Casino Royale]]'' Bond is mostly using his phone as a regular phone, as with phones getting more powerful and the world of espionage moving increasingly into virtual spaces, normal phones are by this point just really useful things for spies to be using.
81	[[/folder]]
82
83	[[folder:Literature]]
84	* ''Literature/TheCatWhoSeries'': In the early books, Qwill has a clunky manual typewriter that he refuses to replace with an electric one. In the later ones he has a clunky electric typewriter that he refuses to replace with a word processor. It's still claimed to be the machine he used his entire journalistic career.
85	* ''Literature/YoungWizards'': A computer obtained by one of the characters in the third book (1990) starts out as a typical 80s Macintosh-like device. By the seventh book (2003), it has "evolved" into a modern-day laptop, despite less than five years passing in-universe.
86	** The author released "New Millennium Editions" 20 years or so into the series, which, among other improvements, iron out the timeline and update the technology in the earlier books to be more contemporary.
87	* In the first ''Literature/AlexRider'' book (2000), the protagonist is given a spy gadget disguised as a Platform/{{Game Boy}}. In the ninth book (2011), he uses an iPhone 3GS, despite it being set only a year later.
88	* The fairies in the ''Literature/ArtemisFowl'' universe are supposed to be high-tech, with technology significantly beyond anything humans have produced. And while most of their tech has remained in MagicFromTechnology territory, some has quietly become upgraded over the course of the series as real-life human technology has reached new heights, making the fairy tech seem backwards in comparison. While the series has progressed forward in time, it's worth noting that in-series, fairy tech has been high-caliber for a long time and is not generally noted as making significant improvements. This is especially noticeable when the fairies suddenly start talking about "mini-apps" four books in, after the rise of smartphones and app stores in real life.
89	* The original ''Literature/{{Goosebumps}}'' series, written in the 90s, uses era-appropriate technological references; for example, ''Literature/WhyImAfraidOfBees'' mentions an "electronic bulletin board" while "forum" would be more appropriate today. On the other hand, the ''Goosebumps [=SlappyWorld=]'' series, which started coming out in TheNewTens, sees characters frequently using smartphones, tablets, video games, and social media. In a bizarre twist, the ''original'' series was also re-released in the 2010s, with the technological references from those books updated as well.
90	* Creator/AlanDeanFoster started the ''Literature/HumanxCommonwealth'' series in 1972; its older novels show Flinx looking up information on microfiche, whereas recent ones have him hacking a global computer network when he's only a few years older. Notable in that one of the novels, ''Bloodhype'', was set chronologically near the end of the series, but written back in the 70s. Foster himself acknowledges that this makes for a jarring plunge in tech-level whenever you read them according to the in-universe timeline.
91	* ''Literature/TheHelmsmanSaga'' was started in the 80s. In the fifth book, Wilf was stated to have a pager. In book 7, he had a mobile phone. In book eight (written in 2011, after a 15-year hiatus), he sends SMS messages.
92	* The novel serialization of the Robotech saga. By the last book (#21), cell phones, internet and email were common enough parlance in the real world that references to them were included, despite never being mentioned anywhere in the previous books.
93	* In the first two ''{{Literature/Fudge}}'' books (1971 and 1980), elevator buttons and pocket calculators are presented as new technology. The fourth book (2002) has instant messaging. The characters are only three years older than in the original. The reference to the pocket calculator was changed in revised editions.
94	* The young ''Literature/AmeliaBedelia'' books are a prequel to the original ''Amelia Bedelia'' franchise, but don't try to pretend they're set in the time period that would actually fit the Amelia Bedelia seen in the original books. ''Amelia Bedelia on the Job'' shows Amelia Bedelia's father working on a laptop, even though personal computers didn't even exist during the 1960s time period in which the books with the adult Amelia Bedelia were first published.
95	* ''Literature/AtlasShrugged'' ended up doing this in a single book. Ayn Rand started writing the novel in 1943, so for much of the book, {{radio}} is the standard mass medium. Just before the [[{{author filibuster}} Galt speech]], UsefulNotes/{{Television}} is suddenly an established technology as it was in 1957, when the novel was finally published. Sure, the story takes place over a few years, but said story involves the greatest geniuses and innovators mysteriously disappearing.
96	* Carefully averted in the ''Literature/SixteenThirtyTwo'' series -- the people of Grantville have the knowledge and technology available in a small town in 2000, and Creator/EricFlint has noted that it takes ever-increasing amounts of care to avoid including anything that didn't exist then.
97	* A subtle example in John Marsden's ''Literature/TheTomorrowSeries''. Despite its NextSundayAD title, derived from that of first book ''Tomorrow, When The War Began'' (1993), there is no evidence the story is set in anything other than the present day -- and the plot of the whole series takes place over a matter of only months. The seven books appeared at annual intervals, though, and over the period of publication there was a real-world revolution in electronic communication. Partway through the series a mention of a character using "E-mail" ''[sic]'' is casually dropped in, with this formatting of the name however immediately dating it to the mid-[[TheNineties Nineties]] when it was a novelty. In another mention nearer the end of the series (and decade) the concept is quietly updated to "email".
98	[[/folder]]
99
100	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
101	* ''Series/DoctorWho'': While the time travel-based premise allows the series to avoid this trope for the most part, it still pops up in the form of the TARDIS itself. The interior of the ship was originally designed based on early '60s conceptions of what futuristic technology would look like, and as 26 years passed, the set would incrementally change in accordance with real-world technological changes and accompanying new predictions. The baubles on the TARDIS console would grow more simplified and less {{Zeerust}}-y before being replaced in the '80s with a design rooted heavily in the nascent personal computer market, and the scanner would go from a ceiling-mounted CRT to a giant flatscreen with the display added in via ChromaKey in the mid-'70s. Come the Revival Series, and the TARDIS would switch to a mix of smaller flatscreen monitors and controls based on changes in personal computer technology and aesthetics during the 21st century.
102	* ''Series/LazyTown'': In seasons 1 and 2, Sportacus can only be contacted by writing a letter and launching it in a tube to his airship. In seasons 3 and 4, he and Stephanie have digital wrist communicators.
103	* Lampshaded in the pilot episode of the 1980s revival of ''Series/MissionImpossible'', which saw the mission briefings upgraded from tapes to [=CDs=], leading Jim Phelps to say "Time ''does'' march on..."
104	* The opening sequence of ''Series/MurderSheWrote'' features Jessica Fletcher writing her mystery novels on an old-fashioned typewriter. In Season Ten, she upgrades to a then-state of the art personal computer; in Season Twelve, she upgrades again to a smaller laptop. Those latter season intros still begin with Jessica using the typewriter only to switch the newer tech, which may reflect the old-fashioned nature of the "cozy mystery" genre of the show.
105	* The lead character's brief ''aversion'' to this was played for laughs in the first episode of the 2018 PostScriptSeason of ''Series/MurphyBrown'', which chronologically takes place 20 years after the original series finale. Brown still preferred using a Motorola [=v60=] flip phone (circa 2002) rather than smartphones like everyone else ([[TechnologicallyBlindElders praising it as being perfect for "making actual calls to people"]]), and had never used Website/{{Twitter}} before. [[AlphabetNewsNetwork CNC]]'s social media intern Pat insists on upgrading her to an [=iPhone=] from the current decade, but not before gazing in awe at Brown's vintage phone (and being disappointed when he realizes it doesn't have Siri).
106	* ''Series/RedDwarf'': In this sci-fi SitCom long-runner's original heyday during the late '80s/early '90s, Holly the ship's computer was seen as a face on a screen -- and was occasionally brought along for the plot on a bulky cathode ray tube TV rig. The aesthetic (eventually) evolved so that by the time of the show's belated {{revival}} as a regular series from 2012 the ''Red Dwarf'' comes equipped with flat-screen monitors, despite the ship having been 3 million years into deep space since episode 1. The "just go with it" nature of the chronology means that it isn't too distracting.
107	** In [[Recap/RedDwarfSeasonIIBetterThanLife "Better Than Life"]], a post-pod that finally catches up to Red Dwarf ("Three million years... about average for second-class post.") and contains two seasons of Zero-G Football and a year of news - on (oddly-shaped) VHS Tapes. Come the Reunion movie, the crew are baffled to encounter [=DVDs=]... and Kryten [[RetCon explains]] that they were too fiddly, and no-one put them back in the right cases, so humanity went back to video cassettes. Both of these examples have now fallen victim to this trope, now that streaming services have become the dominant media format.
108	* ''Series/StargateAtlantis'' (set in the present day), where the expedition had a seemingly limitless supply of gadgets, which mysteriously kept updating with rather recognizable new models which hadn't even shipped yet at the show's premiere, in spite of being cut off from Earth until the Dædalus showed up in season 2.
109	* ''Franchise/StarTrek'' has two instances in which characters time traveled to the year 2024. The first, a [[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS03E11PastTensePartI two-]][[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS03E12PastTensePartII parter]] from ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'', was filmed in 1994, and the tech had a heavy Main/{{Zeerust}} aesthetic. The second, in the second season of ''Series/StarTrekPicard'', was, logically, nearly indistinguishable from the 2022, the year it was filmed.
110	[[/folder]]
111
112	[[folder:Video Games]]
113	* Over the course of the ''VideoGame/NancyDrew'' adventure games, Nancy transitions from using land lines to basic cell phones to camera phones to smartphones, and from borrowing suspects' desktops to owning a laptop to downloading through her phone. In ''The Secret of the Old Clock'', set in the 1920s, the game pokes fun at this by having Nancy's friend Bess having the latest tech -- a party line.[[note]](A party line was where 2, or often more, households were connected to the ''same'' telephone connection.)[[/note]]
114	* The entire ''Franchise/StreetFighter'' series takes place across the course of only a few years. ''VideoGame/StreetFighterIV'' takes place immediately after ''VideoGame/StreetFighterII''. The story is still taking place in the 1990s, but that isn't stopping C. Viper, Chun-Li, Juri, and a few other characters from using modern smartphones and ultra-thin laptops. There is some in-universe justification if one looks at SharedUniverse ''Street Fighter'' is part of. Even discounting the events of ''[[VideoGame/StreetFighterAlpha Alpha 3]]'' (theorized to take place in the late 80s/early 90s), where -- among other things -- Karin's family owns a KillSat, the decidedly futuristic ''VideoGame/CaptainCommando'' takes place in [[TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture 2026]]; [[AnachronicOrder in order]], ''II'', ''IV'', and ''III'' collectively span from the early 90s to the turn of the 21st century, complete with technology that matches and even surpasses what's currently available in the real world (never mind all of the genetic manipulation experiments going around, which seemed to have started before [[VideoGame/StreetFighterI 1987]]). Given the overall moveset similarities, the high-tech battle suit Viper wears is commonly speculated to be a possible prototype for Cap's gear.
115	* This is somewhat noticeable in the ''VideoGame/ModernWarfare'' trilogy, even though the first in the series came out in 2007 and the last one only four years later, as the games try to maintain the feel of bleeding-edge tech. The player character takes out a briefcase computer to guide Predator missiles and helicopter gunnery in ''2''; these are upgraded to touchscreen tablets in ''3'', even though it's the exact same conflict set only days or weeks apart.
116	* In most ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' games, the latest Nintendo console will be featured in the player character's house. The only main exception to this is in the remakes ''[[VideoGame/PokemonRedAndBlue Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen]]'', which feature an Platform/{{N\|intendoEntertainmentSystem}}ES (as opposed to the original games which featured a Platform/{{S\|uperNintendoEntertainmentSystem}}NES). This happens despite the remakes taking place at the same time the originals did (for instance, ''VideoGame/PokemonGoldAndSilver'' feature the Platform/Nintendo64 but the remakes feature the Platform/{{Wii}}). In the case of ''VideoGame/PokemonRubyAndSapphire'', it took place chronologically ''before Gold'' and ''Silver'', yet had a newer console (the Platform/NintendoGameCube). ''VideoGame/PokemonSunAndMoon'' had a Platform/WiiU in the player's bedroom and the follow-up games ''VideoGame/PokemonUltraSunAndUltraMoon'', which were set the same year but in a different timeline, replaced it with a Platform/NintendoSwitch.
117	[[/folder]]
118
119	[[folder:Webcomics]]
120	* In ''Webcomic/ElGoonishShive'', the teenage main cast has gone from landline phone extensions in bedrooms to flip phones to smartphones, within about a year of in-universe time.
121	** Susan works at a video rental store. This was completely reasonable in 2002, when the comic began. By 2023, long after most video rental stores had disappeared in the real world, but again only about a year later in-universe, her boss is finally considering closing down the store due to losing business to streaming services.
122	* WordOfGod on ''Webcomic/DumbingOfAge'' is that it'll roll with this, in order to avoid 'slowly becoming a period piece'. Other than an early oopsie of many of the students listing modern movies as their favorites in a gender studies class (Willis laments in a decade that'll seem weird that so many 18-year-olds would be into classic movies), the pop culture references tend to try to stay as generic as possible. The Platform/NintendoDS/[[Platform/Nintendo3DS 3DS]] may be replaced, but playing a version of ''VideoGame/MarioKart'' on a handheld device will probably be A Thing for the foreseeable future, for instance. Amber's MMORPG is most likely ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'' but never named directly, and ''Franchise/{{Transformers}}'' references are kept as generic as possible, IE "Optimus Prime" and "Bumblebee" being safe choices for future generations.
123	* ''Webcomic/SluggyFreelance''. The very first strip opened with Torg talking about the potential of the Internet in 1997. The march of tech is sometimes downplayed and sometimes lampshaded, especially in the 10th and 15th anniversary strips which redo the first strip but with Torg talking about the internet's potential in 2007 and 2012 instead.
124	* Being about gamer nerds and including a lot of industry jokes, ''Webcomic/MegaTokyo'' fell prey to this ''really'' badly; consider that the first strip of the comic sees Piro and Largo trying to get into UsefulNotes/{{E3}} ''2000'' and a few strips later they were making jokes about ''VideoGame/NeverwinterNights'' being VaporWare. Possibly because Fred Gallagher realised this was becoming a problem, references to "current" gaming technology became much less common as the comic went on (particularly after Rodney Caston left the comic and the format shifted away from single-strip gags to an ongoing story).
125	[[/folder]]
126
127	[[folder:Western Animation]]
128	* Averted via intentional zig-zagging in ''WesternAnimation/{{Archer}}'': [[WordOfGod The writers of the show are on the record]] as confirming that the aesthetics and technology of the show are intentionally made anachronistic and asynchronous: a given episode might feature genetic engineering, memory altering devices, androids, and advanced laser weapons, and yet also display seventies decor and a complete lack of mobile phones--only for the following season to feature smart phones. Whether it's technology, architecture, or fashion styles, everything is an inconsistent mishmash of the last few decades with a dose of futurism mixed in.
129	* ''WesternAnimation/{{Arthur}}'': Early episodes had Muffy, the rich girl, the only one with a cell phone, and Arthur's family owned a computer that seemed to be command prompt and had a very primitive GUI. Later episodes had everyone else owning a phone, the computers up-to-date with 21st century technology (though Arthur's family's computer still resembles one from the 90s, complete with boxy PC tower and CRT monitor, despite actually showing modern operating system and software [=GUIs=]).
130	* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': The technology in the early episodes definitely reflected that the show took place around the same time they were produced, the start of the 90s. Bart used a typewriter to write a paper in an early episode, and the kids in the series played video games on what appeared to be a SNES/NES mashup. Later episodes reflected the 2000s/2010s period, though it took until the show's 2009 HD conversion for the family to have a flatscreen rather than the dials-and-rabbit-ears cabinet TV they had. It gets even more bizarre in an episode where Homer remembers his teenage times which happened in "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS19E11That90sShow That '90s Show]]"; Homer mentions Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog as his idol. The show started two years before the first Sonic the Hedgehog game so the game should be a novelty even for Bart.
131	* Likewise, post-uncancellation, ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' was 'updated' with the latest Eye-Phone and more recent scientific gadgets and theories about TimeTravel and Evolution, which didn't exist in 1999 in RealLife. In one episode aired in the early 2000s, Amy's cell phone is shown to be humorously tiny -- the real-life trend at the time was to make cell phones as small as possible and this was the logical progression. In the 2010s, however, the focus shifted towards touchscreens, which led to cell phones getting much ''larger'' than they were in the 2000s.
132	* ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'': In early seasons a DVD-player was a sign of rich status, that only one family in town could afford. Later, various characters can be seen buying [=DVDs=], playing Xbox games, and having a Facebook account. [[ComicBookTime Yet the boys had only advanced one year in the school.]]
133	* ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' is a pretty jarring comparison between the first season in 1999 and its later seasons, though numerous episodes address this issue by introducing new technologies to the family (mostly because they were still new technologies in real life, and ripe for parody). Early seasons feature using a VCR to tape ''Monday Night Football'', singing about how owning a cellphone was status of great wealth and importance, and Chris talking about using a Walkman and AOL chat rooms. Later, taking advantage of modern technology for the sake of jokes, everyone has a smartphone, the old tube TV was replaced by a Hi-Def LCD, the VCR was replaced by a Blu-ray player and [=TiVo=], there was a three-part arc focusing on Brian and Twitter, Lois has a Facebook account, etc etc.
134	* In the 2011 ''WesternAnimation/BeavisAndButtHead'' Revival, the technology is more or less up to date with the 2010s. Computers look modern, they mention the Internet and modern video games, one episode features a drone, and their TV has a converter box near to the rabbit ears.
135	* In the original ''WesternAnimation/InspectorGadget'' cartoon, Penny had a computer shaped like a book long before laptops were invented. The [[WesternAnimation/InspectorGadget2015 2015 series]] updates this by replacing the computer book with a device that more closely resembles a tablet. In addition, Chief Quimby's exploding messages are now small devices that play recorded messages instead of pieces of paper that detonate [[ThisPageWillSelfDestruct when the last sentence, "This message will self-destruct" is read aloud]].
136	* The [[WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls2016 2016 revival]] of ''Franchise/ThePowerpuffGirls'' turns the titular trio's hotline into a cordless phone and an app on their individual smart phones.
137	* [[DownplayedTrope Downplayed]] in ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants''. The show largely retains the technology it started with (much of which was already outdated long before the series began, i.e. record players). However, a few episodes of the modern seasons (such as "Karate Star" in Season 8 and "Goodbye, Krabby Patty?" in Season 9) have featured smartphones, flatscreen [=TVs=], and some other high-tech stuff.
138	** This is a plot point in the episode "Karen 2.0", where Plankton replaces Karen with an upgraded version of her.
139	* In early ''WesternAnimation/{{Kaeloo}}'' episodes, the characters own flip phones. In later episodes, they are seen using smartphones instead.
140	* One of the early installments of the animated series of ''WesternAnimation/{{Caillou}}'' showed the titular character learning about the use of a bulky old model desktop computer. Flash-forward to 2020 and he is video-conferencing with his friends with Daddy's help in a book about the UsefulNotes/CovidPandemic, but is still just a "[[NotAllowedToGrowUp kid who's 4]]."
141	* ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb'': At the beginning of the series, the characters use flip phones. By the end of the series, the characters use smartphones.
142	* ''WesternAnimation/TheMagicSchoolBusRidesAgain'' prides itself on having updated science and tech info compared to [[WesternAnimation/TheMagicSchoolBus its predecessor]], which aired twenty years earlier. Interestingly, the reboot canonically takes place one year after the original series, and the episode about fossils confirms that it takes place in 2017. This carries the implication that [[ComicBookTime Walkerville went from floppy disks in 2016 to the Internet and social media only a year later.]]
143	* ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddParents'' season 2 episode "[[Recap/TheFairlyOddParentsS2E23InformationStuporHighway Information Stupor Highway]]", aired in 2003, uses a computer running a parody of Mac OS 9. The season 9 episodes "App Trap" and "Viral Vidiots", aired in 2013, show modern smartphones and laptops. [[NotAllowedToGrowUp And Timmy is still ten years old.]]
144	* ''WesternAnimation/TheFlintstones'' original run had BambooTechnology versions of the latest 1960s gadgets, such as "Polerock" cameras. ''WesternAnimation/TheFlintstonesStoneAgeSmackdown'' has equivalents of 2015 technology such as "shellphones". Notably, while previous movies had progressed both technology and the age of the younger characters, this is set in the StonePunk version of TheNewTens while still having Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm as babies.
145	[[/folder]]
146

Context Main / LongRunnerTechMarchesOn