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You can but don't need to. Alternate realities which are present day with some slightly different characters/events are totally fine. Unless you're planning to reference things that are happening t...
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#3: Attribution notice added
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/36599 License name: CC BY-SA 3.0 License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision
You can but don't need to. Alternate realities which are present day with some slightly different characters/events are totally fine. Unless you're planning to reference things that are happening today (in which case, sure write in the future). An audience will give you great allowance so long as you don't confuse them. Whatever advice you think you read was probably narrow opinion and is generically untrue. Spending time on a plot device to "freeze technological advance" is likely a waste of your time. So don't worry about. Write your story, find poeple in the target audience and see if _they_ accept it.