How Do Algorithms Form Our Loves and Habits?

Every major digital platform is engineered to maximize engagement, and engagement is maximized by appealing to fast, reactive emotion: outrage, curiosity, fear, comparison, pride. These are not random byproducts; they are what the systems are optimized to produce. The result is a formative environment that, with sufficient repetition, trains users into specific dispositions: faster reactions, shorter attention, sharper polarization, lower tolerance for ambiguity. None of this requires conscious intent on the user’s part. The formation happens in the background.

Christian virtue points in the opposite direction. Patience, gentleness, self-control, discernment, and love require slowness, attention, and the capacity to hold complexity without collapsing into reaction. A Christian whose attention is shaped by algorithms but whose stated commitments are to virtue is in a kind of internal contradiction — attempting to cultivate slow fruits in a soil engineered for fast harvests. Resisting algorithmic formation is not a peripheral matter of digital hygiene; it is a core component of contemporary spiritual formation.

Key Takeaways: Algorithms as Formative Environments

The Formation Mismatch: Algorithms cultivate fast reactions; Christian virtue requires slowness and attention.

Scripture: Galatians 5:22-23 (the fruit of the Spirit as slow growth).

The “So What”: Spiritual formation in the digital age requires deliberate counter-formation against algorithmic defaults.

James Spencer, PhD, is a theologian, author, and host of the Thinking Christian podcast, where he writes and speaks on Christian formation, political theology, and technology. He holds a PhD in Theological Studies from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School and completed the Institute for Educational Management at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. He serves as President of the D.L. Moody Center in Northfield, Massachusetts, as adjunct faculty in Wheaton College’s MA in Leadership program, and as an Associate Research Fellow at the Kirby Laing Centre for Public Theology. His writing has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Times, Christianity.com, and Sojourners. His forthcoming book is Discipleship and Discernment in the Digital Age (InterVarsity Press, Fall 2026). Learn more at jamesgspencer.com.