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The Internet: Tool or Mind Suck? We Decide Which it will Be.

The Internet: Tool or Mind Suck? We Decide Which it will Be.

Last updated on: October 24, 2026 at 1:08 pm by Rebecca Hamilton

The Internet: Tool or Mind Suck? We Decide Which it will Be. 2026-10-24T13:08:31-06:00 Rebecca Hamilton

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May you live in historic times.

various attributions

Scientific American’s cover story for November is an article about the damaging effects of internet addiction.

I think we all know intuitively that the internet can become destructive if we spend too much time there. Now there is a substantial body of scientific data that corroborates that intuition.

Internet addiction is destructive to individuals, families and all of society. The power of algorithms to ensnare people and, in many instances, hold them captive, has a clear scientific basis. The algorithms are carefully constructed to affect the human brain’s reward structure in much the same way addictive drugs do.

Scientists are not backing away from the word “addiction” regarding the behavior of people who replace normal human interaction with the internet. Hard-core internet users find it almost impossible to give up their screen time, even when it is damaging their relationships and health.

Wasting Your Life on the Senseless Scrolling

I have caught myself wasting large parts of my days roaming through the internet. I start with reading news links, then segue to videos and classes about my hobbies, then I do a bit of on-line window shopping. I might even stop off to pray my Rosary with a website that gives me the illusion that I’m praying with a group of people instead of alone.

When I look up, hours of my day are gone and I am left with the feeling that time is moving too fast for me to get the things done that I need to do.

Gamers are often addicted far beyond that. People who spend a lot of time in chat rooms are often the most addicted of all.

The internet is an organizing tool for predators.

There is also a far darker side to internet addiction. Predators and people who are intent on doing violence discover one another on the internet and form groups in which they trade ideas about how to harm other people more effectively and get away with it.

Steve Jobs famously said that the computer is a “bicycle for the mind” because it speeds up our ability to accomplish things the same way that riding a bicycle allows us to travel faster than we could by walking. What he didn’t say, and may not have really considered, is that the interconnectedness of the internet can create unreal worlds which addict and hold people so profoundly that it can isolate them from the real people in their lives, and twist them into angry caricatures of themselves.

Internet “friends” can’t replace real human relationships.

The interconnectedness of the internet is not based on real human connection. It provides none of the essential give and take of normal human interaction.

You can unfriend people or block them if they annoy you with a click. That is impossible with a real person. The flip side is that when you’re tired, lonely, defeated, or when you’re joyous and triumphant, internet “sharing” is as insubstantial as vapor.

The comfort, peace and strength that comes from the touch of a human hand, the simple presence of someone who is there next you, is totally lacking in internet exchanges. You know — and the people who are talking to you on the internet know — that the minute you switch off the machine, the contact will end.

The internet does not replace the warmth of human companionship. It can’t give you the peace of the sound of the wind in the leaves in the trees in the park. It does not replace the feel of the sun on your skin, or the satisfaction of thinking through a problem, creating a piece of work, or just sitting around the kitchen table and talking about the day’s events with people you know and who know you.

It can never provide anything like the peace and grace of deep prayer.

The internet is not life. If you allow it to take over your days, it can become a kind of living death in which you dream your life away online instead of living it.

Algorithms can enslave people

There is another kind of darkness in all of this. This is a darkness that, in some ways, has societal implications that are more grave even than groups of predators, insurrectionists, terrorists and shooters encouraging and teaching one another how to be more effective in the harm they do.

What I’m talking about is the deliberate and often malicious use of algorithms to manipulate people’s minds. Meta (Facebook and Instagram) recently had to pay $18 billion as a result of a lawsuit it lost for manipulating the children who go on its websites.

Many foreign countries — the European Union, Ireland and Brazil among them — have taken action against Meta for algorithmic manipulation, election interference, and the spread of coordinated disinformation.

Despite all that, the computer is still a huge boon to us. It is a wonderful tool. The internet gives us a chance to stay in contact with people we love who are far away.

I quit Facebook and Instagram because my account was hacked and I discovered that Facebook does not protect the people who use it service. The only thing that I miss is the groups where I could ask questions and learn things related to my hobbies, and the ability to keep up with friends from church, school and my time in elected office.

It’s a great convenience to text family and friends. I also exchange texts with old friends who live thousands of miles away from me. That allows us to still be in one another’s lives.

But — and I can’t say this strongly enough — it does not replace seeing them in person on a regular basis. Even with lifelong friends, the intimacy of texting is something of an illusion. When you see them again, you quickly discover just how much was lacking.

The internet can become a barrier to spiritual growth.

Perhaps worst of all, internet addiction can become a barrier to spiritual growth and your commitment to God. Far too many healthy people are choosing to “do church” on the internet rather than attending services with other Christians. I’ve been sick a number of times these past few years, and having the mass available online has been a gift.

But it’s sort of like taking vitamins instead of eating a good meal. It does not replace the real thing. If you can go to mass, you need to do it. For your own sake.

Real prayer can be hard. It requires deep honesty and really being there with all your heart and soul. I have sometimes prayed the Rosary with a web site simply because it’s the lazy way.

But when you don’t put anything into it, you don’t get much back. I’ve found that when I pray the Rosary with an online web site, the interaction with the website truncates the meditative quality of praying. It becomes a barrier between me and the One to Whom I am praying. I realize as I write this, that I’m cheating myself and God with my lazy praying. I need to back away from on-line praying and pray for real.

The internet and computers are fine tools as long as they serve us. But when we let maliciously employed algorithms that are hooked up to somebody else’s greed for power and money turn us into things that serve the goals of the people who own the websites we visit, that is time to back away.

God allowed us to live in these times and He has equipped us to deal with them.

The phrase May you live in historic times is a curse. Most history is made by upheaval, death and destruction.

No one who values the good life would chose to live in historic times. But none of us gets to choose.

You and I are living in historic times. We are not bit players in this story. You and I and all of us together are the ones who will decide whether we allow these historic times to run without limits until they destroy us all, or if humanity gets through these historic times and moves forward.

I believe we were born now because God chose us to be the ones who are living in these historic times. That means we are able to handle the challenges facing us. But we have to do it.

We can’t let our inventions rule us. We have to rule them.

That requires clear thinking.

And clear thinking requires that we back off the internet a bit and put it — and the billionaires who run it — back in their respective places. It’s a highly addictive, mind-sucking tool. It can help us. Or it can control us.

It’s up to us to decide which it will do.

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