I'll check out the short story! I'm having an off day and could use a good read, even a short one. (Everything's fine, I just feel icky because my sinuses want to beat me and leave me for dead. Whee.) I'm sure I'll be back with thoughts.
However, some aspects of the worldbuilding didn't work for me: the constant references to present-day pop culture (the notion that teenagers in the 2040s and 2050s would all be familiar with Harry Potter or Beyonce struck me as unlikely),
Yeah, that's a little odd. It's not ENTIRELY implausible, I guess - but I think it's more likely one teen would have a niche interest in one of those things, rather than it being something all of them know. At most, they might incorporate elements of those works without understanding the source. That seems more likely. The way we repeat phrases from Shakespeare without knowing it. ("When there's a will, there's a way"*; "it is what it is".)
*According to my college Shakespeare professor, that was actually a sex joke, but don't quote me on that. The guy was a bit of an oddball.
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However, some aspects of the worldbuilding didn't work for me: the constant references to present-day pop culture (the notion that teenagers in the 2040s and 2050s would all be familiar with Harry Potter or Beyonce struck me as unlikely),
Yeah, that's a little odd. It's not ENTIRELY implausible, I guess - but I think it's more likely one teen would have a niche interest in one of those things, rather than it being something all of them know. At most, they might incorporate elements of those works without understanding the source. That seems more likely. The way we repeat phrases from Shakespeare without knowing it. ("When there's a will, there's a way"*; "it is what it is".)
*According to my college Shakespeare professor, that was actually a sex joke, but don't quote me on that. The guy was a bit of an oddball.