In 1982, Nancy Reagan set out her idea to stop young people from using drugs. Answering a girl who asked what she should do when offered drugs, Ms. Reagan replied, “Just say no.”

The phrase became the core of her personal campaign and, to some extent, the federal campaign against illegal narcotics. Its advantage is that it’s simple, its disadvantage is that it’s simplistic.

Maybe Reagan just didn’t understand the addictive power of drugs, but if a person becomes addicted, just saying no becomes impossible. Hooked is hooked.

Still, in this age of individualism, just saying no at the start may help a lot of us avoid another addiction, this one to the blue glow of the computer, or “device,” as techies call it. Unlike many addictive drugs, the blue light is legal. And it may be as addictive as opioids.

How often have you sat in a restaurant and seen a couple seated across from each other, each quietly scrolling on a cell phone? Yeah, I thought so. If that isn’t addiction, I don’t know what is.

Two articles in the current issue of The Atlantic make clear the danger of this addiction. To us as individuals, to our families, to our culture and to our very democracy.

Let me quote Adrienne LaFrance, The Atlantic’s executive editor, who wrote that in spite of much positive coming out of Silicon Valley, its “tools, at scale, are also systems of manipulation and control. They promise community but sow division; claim to champion truth but spread lies; wrap themselves in concepts such as empowerment and liberty but surveil us relentlessly. The values that win out tend to be the ones that rob us of agency and keep us addicted to our feeds.”

Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook, which he has renamed “Meta,” uses the weasel’s justification for grabbing evermore money, evermore power. LaFrance cites him telling The New Yorker: “Isn’t it, like, inevitable that there would be a huge social network of people? If we didn’t do this, someone else would have done it.” Weasel words.

That’s little different from Bill Clinton saying he had an affair with Monica Lewinsky, “because I could.” Or, as Flip Wilson said, “The devil made me do it.” Zuckerberg said of the people who submit personal information to Facebook, “They trust me.” Followed by “dumb f—s.”

Kaitlyn Tiffany, an Atlantic writer, sees a deeper motivation behind the Silicon Valley grab.

Tiffany attended a meeting in Montenegro of high-rolling techies who would replace democracy with systems of their own and unfettered making.

Titus Gebel, a German, proposes “free private cities.” Dryden A. Brown, founder of Praxis, would build an “eternal city” where the only residents would be “talented, would have that high IQ.” Sebastian Brunemeier would build a city beyond all U.S. regulation and taxation, starting with a project called Vitalia on an island off Honduras. They don’t want the poor or the working folks in their elite-run cities. And Tiffany quotes them on their dislike for democracy.

Much of the hype around technology has been that it democratizes society, but Tiffany found the exact opposite in their ambitions. They want free reign for “the best and the brightest.” Brown, asked how Praxis would accommodate plumbers and farmers, wouldn’t answer.

I’m a bureaucracy skeptic. We have way too much of it, by way too many people, weighing way (pun intended) too heavily on little guys. But prudent regulation helps us keep society safe.

Alas, Congress clearly won’t regulate the tech giants. It did the opposite, in 1996, adopting Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act to exempt tech platforms from liability for postings on their sites. The Sun Journal and NBC must vet everything they put in front of us.

Which leaves it up to us as individuals. I use a computer a lot. But I just say no to a lot of the garbage out there. Facebook. X. TikTok. Instagram. Snapchat. I read emails and five newspapers, watch ESPN+ during basketball season and sometimes You Tube videos. My life is plenty rich.

It took some discipline. I love sports videos. But the National Football League seems to have given Elon Musk’s X (ex-Twitter) exclusive rights to its videos, so I get to see Patrick Mahomes pull miracles from his sleeve only during game broadcasts. I refused to open anything that comes on Musk’s platform, even before he was accused of racism and anti-Semitism.

I see a few hopeful signs. Shorey Chapel in Industry voted not to put our worship services online. A few in our congregation don’t have computers. More than half don’t use Facebook and don’t want their joys or concerns to be broadcast beyond the sanctuary. I voted with the majority.

On Monday, at Randy Keach Auto in New Sharon, while my car was getting new brakes, a family came to pick up its truck. Mom and Pop were glued to their phones, but one son leafed through a magazine, the other read over his brother’s shoulder or looked at plaques on the wall.

At Salt & Pepper restaurant in Wilton a few weeks ago, a boy, about 9, sat with three adults. Never looked at a phone and engaged in conversation with his elders. He said “Yes, please” and “No, thank you” to the server. They left before I could tell them how much I admired them.

If our democracy survives, those young people will likely be exemplary citizens.

Bob Neal first worked on computers in 1964 at First National City Bank in New York. He finds them a wonderful tool but a terrible tyrant. Sixty years later, he just says no more often. Neal can be reached at bobneal@myfairpoint.net.

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