Lighting candles around my computer, ready for another night of worship.

(Found a comment addressed to me lost in cyber-blog-world). =]
Is computer technology now taken for granted as an inborn knowledge and need in our society? Is it so accepted that we no longer question the validity of technology as it affects our lives?

I would say that “taken for granted” is an understatement. We seem to be so set on technology as messiah that we stare blankly up at the pedestal we’ve put it on and wait for the next wonderful thing it’s going to do for us. I must admit that I am as guilty as can be. I too, am rather smitten by all the (technological) things I can do now, compared to the childhood I remember growing up in—playing hide-n-seek with neighborhood kids, jumping off roofs, playing hopscotch with rocks, etc. Today, I can create Sim-worlds, go to virtual pool parties, and submit homework without ever leaving the comfort of my desk chair. Absolutely amazing. However, I do think technology is so “inborn” for some of us that we overlook all those we’re leaving behind. It’s easy for us to get lost in our cyber existence, not noticing those apart from it. After all, they’re not there for us to notice in the first place. It has come to the point where we indulge in the good things so much we neglect the negative ways it’s affecting our lives. According to Selfe, our tendency to believe in something and accept it a certain way has “powerful masking effects.” We see technology as we want to see it, and today, a concerning majority of the world seems to see its universal acceptance as a wonderful thing.