I suppose the point I'm trying to make is that a vast majority of any society follow that societies norms, either because they believe that this is the "right" thing to do; through fear of either being looked down upon by that society as being "different" or by fear of some authoritarian body actually doing you harm for daring to challenge the status quo.

Through time the communication tools we use have acted as an enabler to ensure that the norms and expectations of that society are expressed clearly, and in most cases provide some modelling of the correct way to behave.

The internet initially allowed a disruption of societal norms. Those so inclined could find online a different society with different norms than the persons physical society. The physical society reacted by branding these individuals with derogatory names such as geek and nerd.. in some cases thinking that the internet had created this divergent behaviour, not realising that the geeks and nerds had always been there, building new things and working with the cutting edge, but now they could almost completely escape from there physical environment and take up full time membership in there online societies. Those members of the first online societies had power, in that they knew how to fully use this new communication methods, whilst everybody else looked on and wondered how the geeks could control this strange new thing, and behave as creators not just consumers that the norms of the physical society required that most people be.

This has again changed. Over the last ten years, the physical society has redefined its norms of media consumption to include the use of online spaces. Peoples communities now have extended onto the Twitters and Facebooks, providing them with yet more channels to consume, and in some cases create.

So what has happened to the geeks and nerds who pioneered this online society? In some cases they were lucky enough to be able to create the environments that define the internet, and are running the systems that the normal people use. In other cases they, still not able to fit into anything that could be considered to be normal are again pushing the limits of what society will allow. In some cases they have dropped out of the internet world, seeing it as being taken over by the "normal" people, and are therefore working wholly in the physical world. In other cases they are pushing (and in some cases breaking) the limits of what is legal online by ensuring the availability of knowledge without restriction, but in all cases they are using the tools they have to create.

So back to the original question, have computers reduced our power?

For most people, they never had any power to start with. They would blindly follow the social norms without question and act as a consumer to the information and entertainment channels that society accepted.

To those who don't accept the status quo... the power is still there. People can still hack society moulding it to find a way to live that they can accept. Computers and the internet are great tools to enhance our abilities and in this way multiply an individuals power in way that has not been seen since the invention of the printing press.