Fiction Writing
Any piece of fiction (unless very clearly specified) is set in-universe; a world where real places don't exist and those mentioned are essentially poly-linguistic bastardisations of names that ultimately have no bearing on the story. These are either used because the situation demands it, or to establish a certain baseline. That is to say, they are nothing more than placeholders.

Having said that, my first novel has 3 city names as chapter titles. It is entirely left to the reader to decide whether or not these chapters take place in those cities (my personal opinion is 'no' because those cities to not exist as places to live inside the novel).
Likewise, my first short-story mentions 2 locations that do exist in-universe but aren't real places the reader could visit. 

Furthermore, while a character or a narrator may say something like 'a few years ago' it is utterly irrelevant what year the 'now' is and the 'back then' was. Similarly there are plenty of 'events' taking place that I see no point referencing real world/present day events.
I have found this is crucial so it does not feel dated to me.