The ideal for me is to write about something really significant that previously hasn't been written about in-depth. Hackers is a good example. But I knew I was hearing history. A lot of people in the humanities, especially around universities, have only contempt for machines. They don't seem to think that machines can do very much for humankind.
Computers are only the latest in a series of technological advances beginning with sharpened stones.
Every single one of those advances probably came with a warning that it would dilute the quality of life. I guess in some of those cases it has. Personally, I didn't even get a computer until the mid-nineties. So a graphical user interface etc. seems pretty natural to me. But you hadn't seen one before when you first saw the Mac in 1983.