Ah, the ironies of luddism propagated over the internet...
Ha, yes. "But technology never did anything for ME!" they yelled over the internet, sent in from phones, sitting in air conditioned rooms or cars.
Though it is very true that new things, new technologies especially, are expensive, and lower socioeconomic classes aren't likely to see the benefits of anything "new" for many a decade. That's not much of a surprise, and I'd guess there is a similar gap between every class. "Trickle down technological advancements" if you will. Unfortunately, not everything can be instantly gratifying.
I think idea of science/technology being no use to the average person can be countered fairly simply: Look at some of the poorest countries in the world, your "3rd world" countries, and ask if we threw out all our privileged western technology and science so we were more like them, would life be 'better'? My guess is the most people would say no. Thus a path that leads backwards is unacceptable. Next, we already know that the state of things currently is also unacceptable, so stagnation is unacceptable. This leaves open one prospect, to move inexorably forward.
Maybe I'm wrong, sometimes its hard to see through your own privilege. Maybe that question, if asked to the poorest of the poor in any rich country, would be answere in the affirmative. Maybe they would welcome the chance to bring down the rest of the world to their level. I really have no idea. At any rate, I don't believe the above articles are speaking explicitly of those groups anyway, as they don't make up "the common man" demographic.
This isn't a new superstition. Always the status quo is more comfortable than an unknown future, and the past is romanticized as being better than today. Its a good thing progress has its own inertia.