Yet we would always rather blame technology than ourselves. The Internet, we are told, is a terrifically potent spreader of rumors. Granted, but radio was more potent. It's clear that the cultists got their ideas about alien spaceships from Hollywood. But you can't really blame the movies.
Technology merely highlights and underlines the text it is given.
If you look at modern America and then at the Rancho Santa Fe suicides, you cannot help but conclude that this story is about religion, not technology. What is new in today's America is that traditional religion has been suppressed for a generation. The old-line Protestant denominations are in deep trouble today, and Reform and Conservative Judaism are falling apart. Many of their leaders see their mission in social terms rather than God terms. Yet the article is almost certainly correct.