Just thought I'd make an interjection here.
I think that Tolkien, rather than having a hate for modern things, had a hate for mass-produced things. In the old days, people would spend years learning how to make each individual thing, learning a craft, whereas now it is all made by machines. The only physical job we need people for today is to do building and similar tasks. And soon that will probably be overtaken by robotics as well, and we as people will only have to either check that the machines that are checking whether machines are working are working (
) or just do the purely creative things that machines can't do. And that is the one thing machines can't do- be creative and make new things. They can only work on what they have been given.
Anyway, let's say, in the times before machines, a swordsmith would spend many years learning his craft from another smith, being apprenticed to someone more experienced. They would get better at it, and then, they would create their masterpieces. The craftsman, the smith, would work on his sword, slowly and expertly first carving out a mould, then sharpening the blade and perfecting it. And those that were truly great would be reknowned throughout the land. The swords would contain some emothional, sentimental value because someone's hard work into it and they spent their time and effort making just that sword, perfecting it just for you.
Now compare that to the mass-produced products of today. Would you rather buy a sword crafted by the reknowned smith Telchar of Nogrod at his peak or one made by machine RX67-B? (even if that machine only produced, say, one sword per year)
Even today, there are all sorts of novelty and personalised items, because people like the feeling that something was made especially for them, rather than something mass produced by the millions. Because it is something unique, something that has some thought in it and isn't just automatic. The same goes for hand-made stuff. This is so out of the ordinary today that if someone makes something for someone with their own hands it is looked upon as much better than the equivalent that could be bought, even if the bought product is technically "better".
I think that Tolkien felt that as more things were becoming mechanised and made in factories, we, as people, were losing our ability to craft and were becoming slaves to the machines who do anything that we don't know how.
How many of us would be able to do all the things we do now or make all the things we make now without our technology? Most of the crafting knowledge is lost now that we have turned to machines to do the work for us.