Specifically, in my work in progress, I need a way to talk about social media. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc. How would you do it? Do you know of any books where it *is* done, successfully, in a classy way, without obviously dating the book or making references no one is gonna get in ten years?
Sorry, some added info re: the specific situation: Our heroine is given the name of her opponent for an upcoming bout and looks up that name online. She finds the other woman's Instagram account.
I don't think there's necessarily anything wrong with there being a general date, as surely a lot of other things will change over time as well? Plus people might know what it is even after it's no longer really in use. If you do want to make it as dateless as possible, maybe just say a blog or website page? I know it's not great but I can't really think of anything that doesn't sound really generic.
Are you wondering if you need to explain what Instagram is? I wouldn't worry about it for the same reason older books didn't need to explain what a phonebook or rolodex was.
I referred to Twitter in Under the Knife, mentioning that the contestants were each expected to use an account for promotional purposes while their season was airing. One of the contestants even gets banned from the reunion show because she spoiled her exit in a tweet in advance of the air date. For me, the social media aspect of TV competition shows is so prevalent, it would have felt disingenuous for me to leave it out. I also reference Facebook in my current WIP - it's how Connor's long estranged mother reaches out to him after he becomes well-known. The chances of anyone reading my books 20 or 30 years in the future where Twitter/Tumblr/Facebook/Instagram are archaic memories are pretty slim. I'd rather genuinely and realistically capture the time and place my characters are inhabiting at the time I wrote the book. It did cause an issue when I dropped my WIP for a couple of years and had to revise a part where Jaeden appears on a TV show that no longer exists. But TV shows are a bit more ephemeral than whole social media platforms, so in that case I changed the host to a fictional person.
