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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/36588
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/36588
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

The trope you're referring to, if I understand what you're saying, is "[20 minutes into the future](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture)" (TV Tropes link here and onwards). Works based on this trope would usually **focus on societal, rather than technological changes, exploring the progression of modern trends**. Famous examples of such works are George Orwell's _1984_ and Margaret Atwood's _The Handmaid's Tale_. Technological changes are present in _1984_, but they serve the narrative; they are not its focal point, not the thing that's being explored. Since technology is not the thing that's being explored, it doesn't receive more focus than is required by the exploration of societal changes. In _The Handmaid's Tale_, the societal change actually forces a technological step backwards.

If you want to focus on societal, rather than technological, changes, what happens in your story should serve that goal. You don't want to explore technological changes - that's fine. If an "event" stops technological progress **and ties into what you do want to explore** , go ahead and have it. If not, if it's just something you write so you can [handwave](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/HandWave) the technological issue and get on with your story, consider not writing it at all, and just getting on with your story. It's the story that people are going to care about, not the things that were "less interesting" and so you chose not to tell about them.

* * *

There is another trope: [Next Sunday A.D](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/NextSundayAD). That's stories set literally "next year" - in a future so close, that you can very well expect there would be no technological changes. For all intents and purposes, they are set in the present. Why are they set in the future then? Usually such works would have a cataclysmic change happen within the story. A famous example would be H.G. Wells' _War of the Worlds_. Since the cataclysmic event has clearly not occurred in our present, the story must perforce be set "tomorrow" rather than "today".  
But that was not what you meant, was it? (Just making sure.)

Original score: 8