Column: With Google Glass and iWatch, the tech industry overestimates itself

Every year, Gallup polls Americans about their favorite industry, and it’s a beauty pageant that Silicon Valley rarely loses. In 2012, the results were even more lopsided than usual; a remarkable 73% of respondents gave computer technology companies a positive rating, with the restaurant industry placing a distant second at 59%.

This popularity is both increasing, and increasingly visible. Tech has been booming for three decades, but it wasn’t until 2010’s “The Social Network” that Hollywood gave the industry big-screen treatment. In the '90s, flicks like “Pirates of Silicon Valley” were cannon fodder for cable networks.

Today, it’s entirely natural that the Sundance Festival should close with a biopic about Steve Jobs, and that he should be performed by celebrity-actor-dude Ashton Kutcher.

"Geek Pride Day" has become a thing, and geek-chic glasses a national obsession. Justin Bieber regularly sports them, and so does Rihanna – who just replaced him as YouTube’s most-watched-person-ever. A Google search for "fake nerds" will convince you that, not only are they a problem, they’re an epidemic.

The Wall Street Journal tells us that Ivy League graduates are choosing tech over finance, and nine months after leveraging Big Data into a huge electoral win, president Obama recently announced his intention to remake Washington in the tech industry’s image, “user-friendly” and “digitally accessible.”