User blog comment:Banningk1979/Technology and Horror Writing/@comment-24918243-20140728043909

I'm sure for some less creative and lazy people it will indeed become a cliche.

But the sudden loss of contact with the outside world, if done correctly could actually add a new demention to the fear factor. And no, it doesn't have to limmit itself to "signal lost". The phone could break, run out of batteries, go all wonky as if infected by a virus, get lost, be left behind somewhere and countless other situations that would render it unable to help. Like I said, if you are creative and resourceful enough, there are plenty of viable scenarios.

But if you are the lazy type who insists on writing JtK clonses, yea...it will probably be full of cliches and suck. Then again, if you are that kind of writer, chances are the story would suck, smartphone or no smartphone.

The devil is in the details.