“There’s nothing worse for plots than cellphones. Once your characters have one, there’s no reason for them to get lost or stranded. Or miss each other at the top of the Empire State Building. If you want anything like that to happen, you either have to explain upfront what happened to the phones or you have to make at least one character some sort of manic pixie Luddite who doesn’t carry one.”

–Rainbow Rowell and other authors discuss the effect of technology on their work (New York Times). Read more on tech in the Longreads Archive.

***

Photo: nseika, Flickr

We need your help to get to 5,000 Longreads Members.

Join Longreads now and help us keep going.