@Eddie Davidson
There is a story called "Punky Girl" that takes me back to that time and I get to live it all over again. If anything I'd rather have stories set in the 1980s, 70s, etc so to me it would be very valuable as a time capsule to remember the Tik Tok fads and e-girls.
Actually, most stories like that are more "artifacts". Simply a relic of the era they were written than anything intended by the writer.
Myself, I generally make most of my stories "timeless", in that I avoid mentioning things like "modern technology". I also often will place in subtle clues where if caught indicate it is not "modern". One example, I specifically described a TV as having "knobs", and a few other things that would clue it in to being set in the 1970's. But nothing overt.
And having for over 2 years been writing a "period piece", it is a lot of work. I even lived through the period I am writing, and still find myself frequently looking things up, to make sure I do not throw in an anachronism. Like say buying Star Wars on videotape in 1981, when it was not released until 1982.
But here is the real thing, other than say clothing and some words, a story set in 1965, will be almost the same as one set in 1975 (but the cassette will be overtaking albums), and the same as 1985, although phones would have started to leave the wall and become "cordless". By 1995 though even cassette will be dead, being replaced by CD. TVs will have lost their knobs by the late 1980's, replaced by remotes and push-button number pads, and cable TV will be more the norm with 50 instead of 5 choices to view.
But for the most part, not much else really changed. Myself, I simply picked a time, place, and era where a "look" (Valley Girls) was unique and different from those before or after. But even reading through it, by half way through even that largely died (as did the real fad), and only the absence of cell phones would really place it as "not modern".
