Why Are There So Few Smartphones In Popular Movies?

33 Comments

1. The problem is that correlation does not equal causation. There is a plethora of other, equally plausible, explanations that are not as "deep" as the one in the video

2. Mobile phones are also incredibly inconvenient in their conveniency in films… often people have to come up with increasingly complex reasons why they can’t just ‘use their phone’ for their problem

3. Sorry, but movie makers can no longer rely on tired old tropes like "dead batteries/no signals" anymore and have to be more creative.

   Smart phones are not like eating, going to the bathroom and other mundane things we can suspend our disbeliefs on, they have significant and visible impacts on everything we do. Instead movie makers have to start incorporating these modern realities into their stories instead of trying avoid them. The disconnect of this trend will only get worse when communication technology advances and is completely ubiquitous.

4. This doesn't really seem surprising at all. I'd have thought it's 50% that, in blockbusters at least, people don't want to watch people doing normal everyday stuff, and 50% that a huge number of movie plots are wrecked if people can just call and talk to each other.

5. Are smartphones and social media icons of inaction?

6. "Our most popular movies have never really been about confronting our fears and resentments." THIS, wow. One of the most simple, useful lenses through which to view all films I see moving forward, and for me, a huge part of what separates"art" from "content."

7. Can somebody pls explain it to me…why are we talking about LOGIC!!! in fictional, unrealistic things….like why the hell will a fictional world-saving, flying, most intelligent man, blah-blah-blah, would stop to take a snapshot using puppy filter with his tongue sticking out when he has the whole world to protect by killing them side by side so as to stop the bad guy from doin' that!??!???!??!!!????

8. I think that having this video about smartphones was a smart way to elicit actually smart answers from insightful commenters. Sometimes the answer is in the gallery, among the people. I’m sure this was the intent all along. Sometimes the simplest answer is the right one. And that’s the commenters on this one.

9. Smartphone tech changes so quickly it really dates the movies and when you spend $220-$300m you want the film to be relevant as long as possible – so smart phones should only be in if they advance the story … or they will hurt you more than help you

10. There is no smartphones as there is no scens of taking a shit. This stuff is just mondeyan and irrelevant to the plot of an action blockbuster so why would they be featured?

    I agree that these characters (heroes) are reflections of what we would want to be but the smartphones use in movies isn't a very good argument for this thesis

11. I mean this in the nicest way, but I personally believe this is a classic example of over analyzing film. Just like there’s not many movies showing people eating/drinking, doing chores, etc. Is because it’s just not film material. Just like how not many films use phones. I don’t think it’s really as deep as you think it is, it’s just not entertaining.

12. was wondering why everyone in the punisher uses flip phones like i legit thought the show was set in 2003 or something LOOOOL now i get it i guess

13. i think the real question is not why smartphones aren't in popular films, but why don't popular films have stories that heavily integrate social media usage? that's the question that this essay tries to ask and answer i guess

14. – it dates movies
    – boring to watch a character use a cell phone if it doesn’t help the story -> every second costs money
    – showing real dialogue and human interaction is more pleasing to watch

15. Dude I just found your channel, pure gold!

16. There is a tree in every movie. Proof me wrong

17. I disagree with most of the comments. I don't think there are few smartphones because it's just uninteresting to look at. Their absence CAN be interpreted as escapism. As our world gets more and more complicated because of digital media, we are longing for simplicity in our entertainment.

18. using a phone = compelling. watching someone else use a phone = not compelling at all

19. Do one on why people in movies communicate differently with each other than in real life.

20. I hate that you say FaceTime instead of Video call

21. The future of smartphones in film is a light source

22. Its also difficult to simulate a real amartphone screen without paying somebody

23. Well I only think.. Bounty hunting is a complicated profession!

24. Chadwick Boseman will never be forgotten.

25. Love your content Nerdwriter! So interesting to watch! Keep them coming! 😊🙌🙌👏👏

26. biggest fantasies, not movies

27. This was stupid and not even disguised in sophisticated lingo which is what essays do when their point is dumb. This tried to be like a "Every frame a painting" video. I hate you for this and the interstellar video.

28. my immediate thought was that it would make the movie's solution too easy, lmao

29. My thought is that movies generally don't include passive entertainment that we normally consume because it's not interesting to watch. There aren't a lot of moments in movies where people watch television unless it's used to dump exposition from the news or show a family dynamic. To me, I feel like we don't want to watch people do the boring things we do. I also feel like flip phones are common because they clearly serve that particular purpose. It's a lot easier to illustrate that someone is making a call by giving them a device that can only do that. A flip can show action just like picking up a landline or payphone can too. Just easier to communicate quickly.

30. The other thing to consider is when the movies are set.

    Incredibles 2 is set in the 50's/60's and so there wouldn't be any smart phones. Smart phones didn't become popular until 2012 and even then they weren't necessarily common until the next few years. Many of the other movies mentioned here are set in current times but many movies are set in a time where having a smart phone is just as likely as a "dumb" phone or flip phone. And then there's the other thing mentioned by many here that using a smartphone isn't interesting, though that also supports them not being in movies for the same reasons you're talking about.

    Smart phones are still very new technology in terms of most tech we use and while I don't strictly disagree that one reason they aren't in movies is because we don't want to be so attached to them, it isn't the sole or (in my opinion) major reason they aren't in most films. I'd say the main reason is that they just aren't needed or desirable for a good story, people want the characters to interact and using a phone disconnects them. Even normal phones aren't used that much and when they are it's in short bursts to set up a plot point or as background noise.

31. Yes! This!

32. I'm inclined to think that we see smartphones so infrequently because they screw up some of the biggest storytelling archetypes. Another thing you don't see much is people using computers for non- hacking wizardry, but normal googling stuff. Side note – we don't see Google or Facebook often because £££ and to create a 'fake' company pulls the viewer out of the story.

    But yeah : If Harry Ron and Hermione have iphones they can google 'philospher's stone,' 'Sirius Black' and 'horcrux' meaning half the plot doesn't happen. None of the Marvel heroes can have a secret identity – they're the most famous people on earth and now everyone has a camera and geolocation. All manner of mystery, missed connections and misunderstandings all disappear if everyone has a smartphone – and these are the foundations of compelling stories. If you show a smartphone, you now have to come up with a reason for Romeo to somehow not find out that Juliet faked her death, and thus kill himself. There would have been 8 different ways he could've got that message if one or both of them had a smartphone. There would have to be an epidemic of clumsiness as every main character drops and smashes their phone or suddenly gets terrible cell service in order to preserve their ignorance of some vital plot point.

    If you don't include them at all, or at least don't give them to our heroes, then our suspension of disbelief is intact. If we never see a phone in our hero's hand, we never have to question WHY he didn't just google it/text her/hail an Uber and get there on time.
    But this only for now – at the moment, the majority of the movie going public has spent at least a portion of their lives without smartphones – let's say everyone over the age of about 25. But it won't take long before the balance starts to shift and the abscence of phones becomes a glaring omission to the majority of viewers, because they've never known life without them. I'll be interested to see what new forms and tropes storytelling takes on when a character simply not knowing something isn't an option anymore.

33. Also because compared to flip phones in the mid 2000s ghey can't pull the tired old tropes of a phone suddenly not working in a dangerous situations

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