I argue that scholars study the Internet as a social institution. This study employs a critical literature review of multi-disciplinary scholarship on the Internet, the family, and adjacent institutions comparing it to Patricia Yancy Martin's (2005) fourteen criteria of social institution to demonstrate how the Internet represents a new social institution, worthy of inquiry through its fourteen defining characteristics of endurance (persistence over time), social practices, conflicts, power struggles, identity formation, and change, among other criteria (Martin 2004; 1256). I, then, I discuss the potential starting points of digital data research methods for newcomers to the field, such as data acquisition, coding potential, and approaches to analysis. Conceptualizing the Internet as a social institution will ultimately improve the evaluation of peer-reviewed digital research, expand social theory more broadly, elevate our awareness of the Internet's sociality, and subject the interconnections of the social institution of the Internet and other social institutions to more critical investigations.