Simplicity

I am finding that the simple life isn't as easily attainable as I originally thought.  It seems like one step forward and two steps back.  Here's my question; Can we back away from technology without a major reset?  I find myself getting caught up with all of the tech stuff around me.  Stick with me here, I do have a point.  LOL  Just having a really hard time getting to it... I feel like I am the ONLY one struggling with this.  Who knows, maybe I am.  How do we live a quiet simple life, when technology (computers, internet, TV, satellite, etc) seems to be so necessary to our everyday life?  I'm a part-time writer, hoping to become full time and to be able to support my family and homestead with my writing, so I kind of need the technology that is tripping me up.  I feel like I'm caught in a Catch 22.
It is my intention to be honest with you, dear reader, I want to share my expectations and to make my journey a transparent one.  Some of this might be kind of raw and rambly, but sometimes that is where my brain goes.
Ok, so this is what has brought on this deep thought, my #3 son went to a friends house.  These two have been friends for years, but this was the first time he had spent the night at Z's house. Z is rather sheltered according to the world's standards, but a very nice boy. His mom was the stay at home mom, only had one car, dad walked to work.  The family went to church every time the doors open.  I'm ashamed to say that I kind of stereotyped this family.  Z has been to our house several times.  Anyway Son #3 went to his house to spend the night.  He had a great time.  What did they do?  They made gingerbread houses and played games.  What????  I haven't been able to get my kids to do this for years. Not that I haven't suggested it.   Now, I should say that Son #3 is 18.  When I talked to him about this, he just said that everything is so simple over there, one family computer, little TV that wasn't turned on the whole time he was there and they are just happy.  He couldn't really tell me what was different. So when he got home, we tried to play a game as a family, but he wanted no part of it.  Off to facebook he went.  So I'm puzzling this over...  This is why I'm questioning our ability to move back from technology.  In our house we all have computers or tablets or game systems or _____.  I don't even know what we have.
So I'm doing a lot of questioning here.  Probably won't get any answers today, but I feel that just questioning is valuable in itself.  So I'm looking back at how I grew up, and honestly, how I have brought up my kids. The goal was to grow up and get our families, to have more than our parents did.  And somehow we expect to have it all, the nice house in a good neighborhood, the new car or cars, the clothes, the purses, the shoes...  we expect that we can have this all. And not only do WE expect to have it all, we expect to be able to provide it for our children.  As if it is our right, or maybe we aren't successful if we don't have it all.  So we think we need these things so we go to college, where this Superwoman Dream is more ingrained into us and then move into the work force.  So we have student loans and car payments and house payments and credit card payments and pretty soon this dream of having it all has become a nightmare.  I have looked at societies view of being successful for too long and have worked to dig myself deeper into the nightmare that seems to be unending.
So I am at the point of can we do this without resetting?  I would LOVE to move to a new place, but God doesn't seem to agree with me on that at this point, so I will continue to struggle with these questions as I push forward on my homesteading journey.  Nothing worth having comes easy, right?