We do need to come to grips with the social changes that are occurring and the implications of our present and future digital lives. Our man-made environment isn't the problem, it's our evolutionary memory combined with the phenomenal acceleration of information technology.
"none of which I know how to work"
which reads like the classic politician's way of distancing him- or herself from the technology (and have heard from technophobic politicians--http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/06/11/mccain-admits-he-do...). Whether its true or not isn't really the point (do we seriously believe Obama wouldn't know what to do with a iPad, iPhone or iPod?), the point is that it was in his speech. I could be completely off base here (and I surely hope that I am!), but this is a decidedly late 20th century speech in my interpretation.
I think he is just being innocently self-deprecating.