Geeks like to think of ourselves immune from things like celebrity, hype, PR, etc, but we actually are very vulnerable to it. We play up this "man of logic" persona, but its just a self-compliment. Not too long ago we were telling each other that $FOSS_project would destroy Windows/exchange/office, or Xioami will kill Android as we know it, or $billionare will fix $unsolvable_problem, or Diaspora will destroy Facebook, or that Ouya would destroy mainstream consoles, but it turns out that "boring" often wins as MS, Google, and Sony keep making profits and maintaining marketshare. We believe these things because they are pleasing to believe. If you got your news and tech opinions from slashdot 10 years ago you'd be shocked to even see Microsoft in business. How are we different today than the usually wrong slashdot narrative of yesterday?
The larger issue is that dissenting voices are too easily marginalized. I'm pretty skeptical of the success of Tesla and Oculus for reasons I feel I present in a mostly productive way, but when I mention them its just a ticket to being downvoted, which on here and reddit just limits the visibility of the comment. Fanboy comments get upvoted to mass visibility and become the defining narrative. Those narratives become the norm and, well, here we are.