The computer industry is no different from the pharmaceutical industry, the automobile industry and any other industry that is totally dependent on instant self-gratification.
The computer industry begins when hardware is sold. Nothing exciting instantly appears until you buy software for the hardware. From then onwards, the consumer will want more software to entertain and to "be productive". At this point, the consumer is essentially "locked in" into the computer industry. We only -think- we need all this technology around us when in fact we do not. Just think of all the resources put into the industry. The billions of dollars put into creating unreliable operating systems, bugged programs and software that is more detrimental to health and well-being than it is helpful to it. Sometimes when I turn on my computer, I feel as though I've lost some umpteenth days, hours and minutes wasted typing all sorts of entries, illustrating all sorts of grphics and creating all sorts of 3-D models. And all could be lost with a decent format of the hard drive.