It’s the knowledge that has not been passed down through the education system that is the missing link... Mainly survival skills. So many today would have no idea how to survive without electricity, food and water...
Well our educational system may not be all that it could be but even when it was at its best, "survival skills" were never part of the curriculum. Typically one would join the Boy Scouts for that sort of thing.
While it would definitely be a real bummer to lose our technology, people would adapt to the new situation very quickly. After all, 99.999% of the human race lived without all the modern conveniences we take for granted today and we are capable of doing so once again.
The notion that people would not be able to survive because they can't use their iPods or watch television is ludicrous. Electricity is simply not necessary for human survival and while civilization as we know it would be severely disrupted without it, we would very quickly adapt and before you know it, life will get back to normal and who knows, it might even be better.