Interesting because the reverse happen to me. When I first started running, say around 20 years ago. I didn't own a computer, never read a book about running, and never even knew what a forum was let alone a running forum, and honestly had no clue what a garmin was. My sister actually got me into running, and looking back the purity of not knowing anything about running was really nice.
I only started to read about running, training, etc. 3 years ago when I ran my first marathon, and got my first garmin two years ago. I will say learning more about running does help, but with my addicted personality, the numbers, mileage, pace started outweighing the joy I had with running. I thought back in the early days of running, and that's when I decided to drop the garmin for about 6 months and just ran again. I am back to the garmin, but it's only for mileage.
I would say, yes the fascination will dissipate.
Happy New Year!