"You took... and you..."

Solution 1:

It is a subtle difference. The word "take" is used in these sentences to mean taking ownership or taking responsibility. To take something and then do something to it implies that the taker has done the action intentionally, or is at least directly responsible for the outcome.

For example, it is possible to transform a place by simply being there, or by passing through, but to take a place and transform it suggests that something deliberate has been done in order to affect that transformation.

It gets a bit more complicated with non-living subjects such as Alcohol and The Internet, but the principle is the same:

The sentence "Alcohol destroyed my life" can be interpreted to mean: [The use of] alcohol destroyed my life. or Alcohol [abuse] destroyed my life, both of which leave the responsibility with the drinker.

The sentence "Alcohol took my life and destroyed it" explicitly personifies the alcohol (by making it the taker) and then assigns blame to it.