I was having a conversation with a friend yesterday in which he said that technology is a wonderful thing, allowing us to be connected, to learn things at the drop of a hat, to share videos, music and photos with far reaching family and friends with the touch of a button.

Although I too have all of the techno-gadgets, I am not pleased to be TIED to them.

An article in USA Today uncovers a small fraction of the population who call themselves Tech-NOs - they are purposefully unplugged.

Tech-no's "are making a conscious decision to say no to certain things," says Larry Rosen, a professor at California State University-Dominguez Hills and author of TechnoStress.

"It's not a snap decision. They usually have a good reason. And it's not that they're giving up everything. We're not going back to the Luddite era. These people are using (only) what they absolutely feel like they need."

They might even be a sign of what is to come.

"It is going to become very fashionable at some point to be disconnected," Silicon Valley futurist Paul Saffo predicts. "There are going to be people who wear their disconnectivity like a badge."

This population is being forced to dwindle as school age children grow into adults. Schools are requiring at a young age - 3rd grade and up - that they learn keyboarding, that homework be typed and that papers include Internet resources. We are forcing the younger generation to be permanently attached at the hip to computers. In our high school; textbooks are on the Internet, homework is given through teacher websites and student grades are updated and available for view by parents daily on the school website.

In 10, 15, 20 years will human contact and conversation be totally replaced with the computerized voice, email and MySpace?

I called my credit card company to cancel my account recently and a computerized voice asked me to chose from a variety of words that I could say into the phone. However, my choice "I JUST WANT TO TALK TO A PERSON" didn't get me the desired results.

I'm am concerned by what technology is turning us into and yet, just like 81% of US adults, I too am dependent upon my technical toys.

What do you think?