Writing near-future stories — SF or otherwise — is a thankless task, because you will always, always, get something laughably wrong (a name, an obsolete product, a movement unpredicted, a technology that has died or has taken over). Predicting computer and video-telephones was common, but how many recognized that today we would be carrying around one device that was both of those and a camera in our pockets? And how many people from two decades hence are reading this saying, "In your pockets?!"
Here's some good-sounding (but difficult) advice on how to avoid some of these pitfalls. You may not predict the future, but you can come up with something that isn't too laughable.
10 Ways To Create A Near-Future World That Won’t Look Too Dated
Writing about the world to come is a scary proposition, because nothing becomes obsolete faster than futuristic visions. Especially if you’re writing about a decade or two from now, your story risks looking ridiculous within a few years. So here are 10 tips to keep your near-future setting from looking too dated.
I always smile when I read Asimov's descriptions of hand-held computers that print query results on paper.