I agree, the better thing is to be selective. Dump the TV, and control the other devices. Sign me up for the most modern MRI that my health plan (which I hope doesn't have a tape drive for my records) will pay for.
Medical technology has not really moved forward too much for basic care from 1986 (HIV and new Chemotherapy drugs are the two things I can think of brought to market since then)
While it's arguable that there haven't many major advancements in surgical techniques since 1986 aside from a few notable exceptions, medical diagnostic tools have seen significant improvement and now allow us to diagnose many life threatening diseases long before the become incurable.
Our ability to catch diseases is almost as, if not more, important than our ability to cure them and this ability has increased manifold in the past thirty years.
> Medical technology has not really moved forward too much for basic care from 1986
This really depends on your definition of 'basic care', and, therefore, isn't a very interesting statement.
My immediate counter-example is this: If someone in that family gets gallstones, they'll want laparoscopic surgery as opposed to the "open 'em up all the way" technique that was actually common for cholecystectomies (gallbladder removals) in 1986.
Also, MRSA existed in 1986, but if it's resistant to the first-line choice of vancomycin, linezolid and other drugs that can cure vancomycin-resistant MRSA didn't exist then (and being in trials doesn't really count as 'existing' because, really, how many people can count on getting in on a drug trial?).
Because technology in itself is not good or evil. Technology is a tool to be used if you think it brings something of value to you. If you think your kid is spending too much time on the iPad or on the PS3 and that he should spend more time outside, address this point.
As another commenter pointed out [1], this is more a case of brainless dogma than anything else. The fact that the father is having a hard time finding a job because job applications have to be done online is a nice example of that.
Western culture (I can only speak for this one) too often goes to the extremes to address subtle points, and we end up with movements like "no technology in the house whatsoever" or "protein only diet". Sudden changes sound good on paper ("from now on, I'm going to work out 5 hours a day every day!"), but pervasive progress more often comes from changes in small every day actions and habits.