Freestylin' with Coffee, Thinking about Technology...are we creating the Borg?

I have been considering the effects of our reliance on technology (notice, I did not say 'of technology') on the human community. The dichotomy between interconnectedness and a lack of empathy for one another is profound, and very disturbing. 

Science and technology revolutionize our lives, but memory, tradition and myth frame our response.
Arthur M. Schlesinger 

We have, as a developed society, given over the reins of control to our tools. So much societal and educational emphasis is placed on being competent and conversant in technology, we have, as a culture, forgotten what makes us human and humane. We need to snatch back our inner spark, before it becomes extinguished, before we become Borg-like (yah, nice little Star Trek reference, eh?), and we operate only in a hive-mind type of society. All throughout human history, mankind has sought ways of differentiating himself from the collective, to gain free will and control over his own destiny. This Promethean impulse is quickly being shoved aside, to only have our children wired up and wired together, all in the name of...what? I'm not really sure what goals we hope to achieve. 

This is not to say that computers and other forms of technology are bad; they are unbelievably powerful means by which we can, with intention, create, inform, connect, and synthesize with other people anywhere around the world. What I am concerned by is the fact that most of my students have a mental sedentariness that frightens and perplexes me. Many are so hooked in and hooked up they have no facility for independent thought. Their situation is paradoxical, at best. They want independence, yet that is expressed only in ways of being connected to others, seeking digital approval (hmu, lms, truth is), and almost frantically needing to be physically connected to their current digital devices. There will be few, if any, mavericks in this bunch, I can assure you. Innovation requires independent thought, and I fear they are not ever going to be comfortable with taking risks academically or personally, in order to achieve anything meaningful or unusual. The Collective, which is sometime a great dynamic, can brainstorm ideas. However, it takes someone with a different perspective with the innate sense of adventure that propels him or her to go his/her own way, to offer new solutions, to even inspire the Collective to go another path. This is true for every arena of human existence, not just in the field of technology. New literature, arts, music, medicine all take a single person to say 'no, this is not working, existing strategies don't apply, what next?' 

To make a rock'n'roll record, technology is the least important thing.
Keith Richards