Use it the same way you’d use any other tool, with prayer, discernment, and the understanding that it can either help you grow closer to God or pull you away from Him. The internet isn’t good or bad in itself. It’s what you do with it that matters.
That’s the short answer. But if you’re asking this question, you probably already know the internet presents some real spiritual challenges. You’ve felt the pull to check your phone one more time. You’ve scrolled through social media and come away feeling worse, not better. Maybe you’ve gotten into arguments in comment sections that left you angry and ashamed. Or maybe you’ve stumbled onto content you wish you hadn’t seen.
These aren’t new temptations. They’re the same ones Christians have always faced, pride, anger, lust, sloth, envy. The internet just delivers them faster and more attractively than ever before.
The Old Passions in New Packaging
St. Maximus the Confessor wrote extensively about guarding your heart against the passions. He didn’t know about Instagram, but he understood human nature. When you post something online, what are you hoping for? Likes? Validation? To prove you’re right and someone else is wrong? That’s pride and vainglory, the same sins monks in the Egyptian desert battled fifteen hundred years ago.
The Fathers talked constantly about watchfulness, nepsis in Greek. It means paying attention to what’s happening in your soul. That’s hard to do when you’re constantly distracted. Every notification is designed to grab your attention. Every algorithm is engineered to keep you scrolling. Social media companies employ psychologists to make their platforms addictive. They’ve succeeded.
So the first thing you need to do is recognize that you’re not just dealing with a neutral tool. You’re dealing with something deliberately designed to capture and hold your attention, to keep you coming back, to make you feel like you’re missing something if you’re not constantly checking in.
Practical Boundaries
The OCA has published guidelines for clergy using social media, and most of the advice applies to laypeople too. Set strict privacy settings. Don’t use social media for conversations that need to be private or emotionally sensitive, those belong in person or at least on the phone. Be careful about what you post when you’re angry or upset. Remove people from your feeds if they’re consistently leading you into arguments or temptation.
If you’ve got kids, you need to be on the same platforms they’re on. You should know what they’re seeing and who they’re talking to. That’s not helicopter parenting. That’s basic Christian responsibility for the souls God has entrusted to you.
Consider establishing tech-free times. Maybe you don’t check your phone until after morning prayers. Maybe Sunday afternoons are screen-free. Some families do a serious digital fast during Great Lent, cutting out social media entirely or limiting internet use to what’s necessary for work. Talk to your priest or spiritual father about what makes sense for you.
And here’s something that matters for those of us in Southeast Texas specifically: when you’re off rotation and home from the plant, don’t spend your whole time off staring at a screen. Your family needs you present, not physically there but mentally scrolling through Facebook.
What the Internet Can Do Well
This isn’t all negative. The internet has made Orthodox teaching accessible in ways that would’ve been unimaginable thirty years ago. Ancient Faith Radio offers hundreds of podcasts and thousands of articles. Parishes livestream services for people who are sick, traveling, or working offshore. You can read the Church Fathers, listen to liturgical music, find answers to questions about the faith.
During COVID, online services kept people connected to the Church when they couldn’t physically attend. That was a genuine blessing. But it also revealed a danger: it’s easy to treat online worship as a substitute for the real thing. It’s not. Watching Liturgy on a screen is better than nothing, but it’s not the same as being there, smelling the incense, receiving Communion, standing next to your brothers and sisters in Christ.
Use the internet to supplement your life in the Church, not replace it. Listen to Orthodox podcasts on your commute. Read articles that help you understand the faith better. But don’t let online Orthodoxy become your primary experience of Orthodoxy.
Guarding Against False Teaching
One more warning: the internet is full of people claiming to speak for the Orthodox Church who don’t. You’ll find rigorists who make the faith sound like an impossible burden of rules. You’ll find phyletists who confuse ethnicity with theology. You’ll find schismatics and cranks and people with axes to grind.
Stick with trusted sources. The Antiochian Archdiocese website. Ancient Faith. Your parish. Books recommended by your priest. If you’re reading something online that makes you anxious or confused or angry, talk to your priest before you assume it’s authentic Orthodox teaching.
The internet can connect you to the wisdom of the Church. It can also lead you into rabbit holes of nonsense. Discernment matters.
The Heart of the Matter
Here’s what it comes down to: Are you using the internet in a way that helps you love God and your neighbor? Or are you using it in a way that feeds your passions and isolates you from real human connection?
Bring your internet use to confession. Ask your priest for guidance. Set boundaries and actually keep them. Fast from social media sometimes. Pray before you post. Pay attention to how you feel after you’ve been online, if you consistently feel worse, that’s your soul telling you something.
The goal of the Christian life is theosis, union with God. Anything that helps you toward that goal is good. Anything that pulls you away from it needs to be cut back or cut out. The internet is just a tool. What matters is whether you’re using it as a tool for salvation or a tool for distraction.
