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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/44459
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/44459
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

# Social media is no longer sci-fi

In years gone past concepts like the internet would be considered sci-fi. Many book exist which use digital communication on a global scale as part of a sci-fi setting. [Oxford Living Dictionary defines science fiction as:](https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/science_fiction)

> fiction based on imagined future scientific or technological advances and major social or environmental changes, frequently portraying space or time travel and life on other planets.

20, 10 or, to some degree, even 5 years ago it would have been difficult to imagine a single network or service having as much control over our lives as facebook does today. A setting that used such a network would have been considered sci-fi or at least dystopian as little as 5 years ago, but wouldn't be today.

For example consider the novels _Feed (2002)_ and _The Circle (2013)_ both books deal with an overarching network connection with control over our daily life, set in the not too distant future. _Feed_ is a distinctly sci-fi novel, written when the internet was still relatively new and the idea of a network like that is a major technological advance and social change. _The Circle_ is slightly less sci-fi and more dystopian or alternate reality as the technology and social structure are less distant from reality at the time of writing.

Move forward another 6 years to today. The concept of a social network is not longer futuristic and required no technological advances or social change. They already exist and writing on them would be more closely considered social commentary than alternate reality.

In conclusion; it would have been sci-fi if you wrote it 10 years ago. Today it is just fiction.

Original score: 15