I need help with a macguffin.

[Mischief Maker]

I'm writing a story that revolves around a macguffin that holds financials on drug deals. My original idea was a flash drive. The main character is a kid who bumps into a scared man and they both drop identical brand flash drives and get them mixed up. The kid finds out these aren't his files then a gangster is after him.

The problem is, do teenagers even use flash drives anymore? Has the cloud swallowed everything? Is there another plausible external storage device the kid could drop and mix up that's more up to date? It's got to be something a kid could casually bring with them on vacation.

It's so strange to me when people call me an old man because I back up my videogames on blu-rays.

[Giest118]

I used a flashdrive in high school, although that was a cool eight fucking years ago holy shit.

I'd assume there's still people who use flashdrives.
You could probably get away with using smartphones for your example.

[ZacharyB]

I use flash drives all the time. Then again, I am 35 or 36 and still use Windows 98.

......They're still perfectly usable ways of storing data, especially for transporting files between older computers (for instance, the computers that might be in schools). But kids... I don't know. I have two younger nieces who use iPads like they were born holding them.

Perhaps iPads or iPhones? Those are kind of big, though. Maybe some kind of fake, smaller (trendier) phone... iPhone mini.

[BryanM]

Use identical manila envelopes packed with 5.25" floppies inside and if anyone complains about it say "fuck you that's why"

[Mortificator]

What about SD cards? They're used in a lot of devices, including cameras & camcorders, which would be natural to bring on vacation. With a reader, you can plug them into a PC and use them just like a flash drive as well.

[Sumez]

I'm pretty sure floppies are still the standard.

[TransatlanticFoe]

Set the story 10 years ago so flash drives are relevant?

[Mischief Maker]

Thanks for the input, everyone.

The story has an actual teen audience so I gotta get the details right. I already was yelled at for having the main character talk to people on facebook, which would make today's teens stort derisively because they all use snapchat now or some shit. The one thing I've got to avoid at all costs is chillin' in Cedar Rapids.

Is "thumb drive" a generic enough term that it could apply to SD cards?

[BulletMagnet]

I always thought of a "thumb drive" as something with a USB plug sticking out of it, but I'm an old fart myself so take that with a grain of salt.

[Durandal]

The only excuse teenagers can have nowadays for carrying around USB sticks is for school projects, it seems.

[Sumez]

Wouldn't it make sense in the context of the story to actually use an "outdated" storage medium anyway? If it were just a USB flash drive, anyone could pop it into their computer and get it out on "the cloud".
But if it's some sort of aged device, you need legacy hardware to interface with it, giving people more reason to actually carry it around and protect it. Just a thought