If you have not been unconscious over the last thirty-to-forty years, you have at some time heard someone say something like this when talking about technology, “It is going to happen. Kind of scary, but it is going to happen.”

Just yesterday I heard someone say that at an event. It was an event discussing the technologies behind social media and the best way for organizations to use those technologies. On a practical level, it was an excellent presentation. It was very well done and covered the relevant material with strategic insight. Yet, several times the expert who was presenting said, “It is going to happen. Kind of scary, but it is going to happen.”

Facebook delving ever deeper into your personal life and everyday behavior? “It is going to happen. Kind of scary, but it is going to happen.” Google returning customized search (and display ads) based on your . . . your . . . well, pretty much your anything you ever do? “It is going to happen. Kind of scary, but it is going to happen.”

I do not want to quibble with the “kind of scary” part. That seems obvious. I certainly cannot deny the “it is going to happen” part. Facebook, Google, and all the rest will make sure it happens. That is for sure. It is the inevitability part that gets to me. The part where you and I let it happen to us, even go out of our way to make it happen to us.

Over the last few weeks I have read a number of books, Sherry Turkle’s Alone Together is one that stands out as a necessary read for the beginning of the twenty first century. Also, I watched Plug & Pray, a film that documents Joseph Weizenbaum’s suspicion of technology. It is hard to ignore the conclusion that we are manifesting our scary inevitable technological future by allowing it to happen to us.

No thoughtful critic of technology wants no technology. It seems, however, that the evangelists of technology want no thoughtful critique of their Gospel. Good news, no questions asked. Odd that technology evangelists claim to be rational. Odd that so many of us agree.