The thing is, I'm willing to bet that some movies made in the 1930s or 40s wouldn't be possible with 1970-80s technology. The only difference today is that the pace of technological change has quickened. Movie writers and directors who are setting movies in the present day have always had to work within the technological and societal boundaries of the day. That's just the way it is.

If modern technology makes it impossible for someone to get lost if they have a cell phone, then movies either A) don't feature someone getting lost and do something else instead, or B) have the protagonist lose/break/forget-to-charge his or her cell phone. If modern technology makes it impossible for someone to hide in the closet or check into a creepy hotel or what have you, then ... well, don't make movies about those things.

The author says that a film like 127 Hours couldn't be made in a few years because of the pervasiveness of technology, specifically cell phones and GPS. Except, I can think of a lot of ways it would still work, and if I can think of some off the top of my head I would imagine script writers wouldn't have much trouble either. Remember the two girls he met? Maybe one of them, while taking pictures of their jumping with his cell phone, accidentally slips the phone into her own backpack. Maybe one of them just plain steals it. Maybe when they're jumping in the water together the phone falls in and stops working. Maybe the phone gets smashed when he falls into the crevice. Maybe the main character planned to go out camping instead of just hiking, and does that sort of thing all the time, and told his family where he was going and that he would't be back for a week, and so no one thinks to look for him because nothing seems wrong.

But even discounting that, is it really such a lamentable thing when moviemakers have to come up with new plots instead of recycling old ones? If they need to be cleverer in order to construct good plots that work with modern technology, then gosh darnit, I guess they just need to be cleverer, or write plots that don't depend on miscommunication or the lack of ability to communicate.