Unfortunately, the answer to this question is a bit frustrating and vague. The book takes place in "the future." Bradbury wrote the book in the 1950's, and more than one analysis places the book "sometime after 1990." Again that is frustratingly vague. That could be 1995, or it could be 2195, but that's the point. Bradbury doesn't want to nail down a specific date because that might cause the book to be dated and an incorrect prediction. If Bradbury stated that events were happening in 1999, modern day readers would be able to accurately state that Bradbury's predictions were completely wrong. The world of 1999 was nothing like the book. The vague "future" setting works much better because it allows readers that are reading the book 60 years after publication to still place the book in the future. Modern readers might see some current technology matching up to the book (earbud headphones), but enough of the book still hasn't happened that the setting still allows modern audiences to read it as a dire future prediction.