Why all the fancy technology in most movies?

Question

In most of the movies and TV-series I have watched, whenever there is some kind of "technology" involved (say, like a tracking device or hacking something important), there is a lot of unnecessary, impractical key-pressing and fancy colors and sounds (a lot of 1's and 0's going on the screen and a lot of "beep"s).

For example, take the TV-series Primeval. Their device for tracking anomalies have a lot of the things said above.

Why do movies and TV-series employ this kind of false-looking tech? It would have been much easier to use a real OS (like MacOS for normal things and Linux for hacking-kind-of things), maybe with a custom-made software suited to the task. It would have been more realistic.

So is there any specific reason for this?

Answer 1

Well, I think there is perfect reason for it, audience appeal. Of course those things are totally unrealistic and over the top, but show a simple black-white console to the audience or a basic database application and they will just find it boring to look at or think there is not much to it.

Of course it bothers the hell out of those who know better, but the average guy that uses his computer for YouTube, Facebook and maybe Office is just more pleased with colorful displays and stunning graphics in a simple database query and is more likely to accept that there is something interresting going on.

And of course all hackers fluently commuincate in 0s and 1s, which makes them so awesome ;)

Answer 2

I think one reason is that it explicitly divorces the tech in the show from real world tech. This allows writers more freedom because there isn't going to be some expert somewhere saying "That isn't how you use regular expressions!"

If the tech is "fancy" then only those in the show are the experts.

Answer 3

Mainly, because it follows the basic principle of "do it like somebody else, but maybe flashier." It is a simple audio/visual cue that viewers are used to.

It's really no different than hearing a "slap" sound when somebody gets punched (instead of a thud), or somebody flying backwards when they get shot, or zooming in on a license plate from a hijacked satellite feed with a half-dozen key strokes (and no mouse).

Reality is boring.