Screen People: How We Entertained Ourselves into a State of Emergency

by Megan Garber

From America's reality-TV-star-cum-ex-president to our expertly curated Instagram feeds, it's never been less clear what's real and what's been simply fabricated for our entertainment.

SCREEN PEOPLE is a deep dive into what happens when we cede our reality to spectacle. Garber explains how the internet-inflected culture of the present moment conditions us, every day, to see each other less as people than as characters in an ongoing show, and how some of our most chronic and harmful social conditions - loneliness, depression, mistrust, misinformation, cynicism - stem from our demand for diversion.

In ten chapters, each themed around an element of stagecraft - from 'The Producers', who edit our reality, to 'The Props', the strangers we turn into objects of our amusement, all the way through to 'the Haters', the worshipful QAnon-types who expect the prophecies of their anonymous leader to play out on live TV - Garber builds toward an argument as urgent as it is our fun is quickly becoming our emergency. And we can't understand our politics without first understanding our culture.

Part critical investigation, part manifesto, part fan's diary, SCREEN PEOPLE will be an eye-opening journey into the cultural underbelly of our present malaise.

Genres: Nonfiction, Technology, Sociology, Audiobook, Politics, Psychology, Cultural

294 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 21, 2026

Reviews

[Nathan Shuherk · Rating 5 out of 5]

Currently this book has a 3.52 rating and only like 28 reviews and I feel like I’ve discovered a pure work of genius that no one understands. I was astounded and obsessed with this one. And I would’ve loved if the book had been a little more forthright about it not being specifically about smartphones - maybe even wishing I had this exact book for the almost entirely algorithmic society we’re living through - but this is one of the best media studies books I’ve ever read and I WANT MORE.
This work has already latched onto my brain, and I’m going to return to it often as it’s given me new appreciation and fascination with how to consider media (and also provided an incredible bibliography to help kick start a new hyper fixation that feels essential for living through the days in which we are all collectively asking “so… phones are, like, uh, kinda bad for us, right?)

[Tanja Berg · Rating 3 out of 5]

"All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women are merely players..."

Said Shakespeare and he was surely not referring to our current day and age. Yet it fits. Not all of us are content creators. However, because of all our screens, we have started to view other people as characters on a set, rather than as real people. With detrimental consequences, such as a reality star POTUS.

The author tries feebly to state that all is not lost, that we can still define technology and use it in a way to better humanity. Well, I think not. We have resigned our fates to the tech bros and their AI's, manipulating us at every turn. It is impossible to know what is real and fake anymore, or at least, it's very easy to fall into traps unless you are deft at critical source analysis. Truth and fact doesn't matter anymore anyway, repeating lies gets you further.

I have started to dissociate from SoMe. My distaste for AI content is profound. I get my news from credited sources, that is, news paper interested in investigative journalism rather than click bait. There are a few left. Of hope for a better future though, not so much.

[Mikala · Rating 3 out of 5]

There’s a lot of sharp, well-researched thinking here about how screens, celebrity, and the attention economy shape our sense of self. Garber is at her best when she’s unpacking the idea that we increasingly see ourselves as characters in a never‑ending show, constantly performing for imagined audiences.

But as other reviewers have pointed out, this might have worked better as a long Atlantic series or a podcast than as a full-length book. The arguments circle the same points, certain examples get repeated, and after a while the structure starts to feel more like a very long essay than a cohesive, evolving book.

I also struggled with how narrow the cultural references were. Garber leans heavily on recent reality TV and social media “stars” as her touchstones. I almost exclusively read books and don’t really watch reality TV, so I often had no idea who she was talking about. By focusing so much on the last 5–10 years of pop culture, the book seems aimed at Gen Z/Gen Alpha even though they may not be the ones picking this up, and it risks alienating the elder millennials and older readers who actually are still reading books.

What I really missed was a deeper historical contrast. If we’re now living as “characters,” how does that differ from eras when books were the main storytelling technology, or before that, oral traditions? Have people always had a subset who live in fantasies and grand narratives about their lives, and screens just give those people more outlets? Or has the attention economy actually increased the number of us who slip into that mode? The book raises these ideas but doesn’t dig nearly as far back as it could.

Finally, it felt like a missed opportunity that The Truman Show never comes up. It’s an almost perfect cultural touchstone for this subject, yet the book stays mostly in the realm of recent reality shows and influencer culture. That choice contributes to the sense that the analysis is a bit temporally cramped.

Overall, I’m glad I read this and I think there’s important, troubling truth in what Garber is describing. I just wish the book had widened its lens historically and culturally and done more to bridge the gap between our current screen-saturated world and the older storytelling traditions that shaped us before the feeds took over.

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

First things first, thanks to Grant for reading this so that it came across my timeline, much appreciated.

Garber has a remarkable ability to voice what feels intangible with such concrete precision, painting riveting imagery, while distilling such comprehensive analysis.

This book explores the sociology of contemporary technology, examining how the internet and social media, as a medium of communication, has eroded the distinction between fact and fiction and conflated truth with opinion. It goes on to discuss the sociopolitical, cultural, and moral impacts from creating, interacting, and reckoning with the digital age when embodying both the role of audience and performer.

Side note: we (Garber and I) must have the same reading list, because the theoretical foundation that this book builds upon was essentially the greatest hits from my undergrad and my ow personal academic book collection. I also felt really in-tune with the pop culture and media references #slay

[Grant]

Loved it

[Lizzy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Save yourself the trouble and just read Hannah Arendt yourself.

interesting premise, I just felt the argument never really developed over the course of the book. Admittedly, I listened to the audio book in 20 minute chunks.

[Caylea Housh · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5⭐️

[SusanJ · Rating 2 out of 5]

Good title, lots to think about, annoying political bias.

[Isabella McIntire · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was one of those books that really would have been better delivered as a 10 part podcast series. It was an insightful dive into modern social media, reality TV, and politics. However, it meandered in a way that makes me wonder if she was just trying to reach a word count. I kept hoping she would discuss more of the impact of our ever-increasing screen time, but she spent more time waxing poetic before abruptly jumping to a modern example.

[Nicole Wagner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Megan Garber's SCREEN PEOPLE tackles one of the most pressing questions of our digital age: what happens to our humanity when we increasingly encounter each other through screens rather than face-to-face? The book's central thesis is that screens give us tacit permission to treat other people as imagery, making them manipulable, compliant, and expendable. This idea is both provocative and uncomfortably relevant.

The author draws a compelling parallel between how clocks don't just measure time but reshape our relationship to it, and how screens don't just mediate our social interactions but fundamentally transform them. Where does the avatar end and the person begin? This question haunts the entire work, particularly as the author examines how tech platforms operate with the logic of reality TV producers, prioritizing engagement and attention over material benefit, factuality, and ethics.

The book's strength lies in its synthesis of ideas from heavier thinkers and philosophers, making complex concepts accessible and immediately relevant to our current moment. The author reminds us that humans have survived as a species through networks and shared stories, but the internet has too often become a tool of division and dehumanization. At its best, it represents millions of people finding meaningful new ways to connect, share stories, and have fun together. Yet we desperately need to humanize the digital town square in a way that encourages us to take care with the impact we make, the language we use, and the way we consider one another across digital spaces. People will often say things in a crowded comments section that they'd never say in a crowded town hall. We can't tell anymore what's authentically human online and what elements are bots, simulation, and algorithmic manipulation, and the mean is skewing towards feeling "not real," thereby encouraging careless behavior and disregard of human consequence. The references to threats the Uvalde gunman made on social media app Yubo in weeks leading up to the massacre, which were reported but apparently ignored by the platform, were particularly chilling and underscored the real-world consequences of treating digital interactions as somehow less real than physical ones.

However, the advance reader copy I received felt somewhat unfinished. I noticed repeated sentences throughout, which created a jarring reading experience. I'm uncertain whether this was intentional stylistic choice or incomplete editing. More significantly, the thesis, while powerful, wasn't always clearly articulated. The book sometimes read more like a collection of highlighted points and examples than a fully developed argument.

Despite these structural concerns, SCREEN PEOPLE is an important and timely work. It asks the questions we need to be asking about our screen-saturated lives and provides a framework for thinking about the human cost of our digital transformation. The philosophical tenets the author captures would pair beautifully with an ongoing podcast or magazine column that could relate current events back to these timeless concepts, a way to keep the conversation alive as our digital landscape continues to evolve.

Thank you to the publisher for providing an advance reader copy.

[Adam‘’s book reviews · Rating 3 out of 5]

Screen People: How We Entertained Ourselves into a State of Emergency
by Megan Garber

This book examines how social media shapes meaning, authenticity, and trust in a digital environment where users are both consumers and producers of content. The author argues that this dynamic affects nearly everyone, not only in personal and cultural spaces but also in public and political ones, where social media increasingly shapes how ideas, identities, and disagreements are expressed. Organized into short chapters, each chapter presents a central idea, which the author explores through subsections rather than a single continuous narrative.

The central premise—that we cannot always know whether online content reflects genuine belief, performance, persuasion, or a pursuit of engagement—is clearly stated. The book situates social media within a broader historical context, noting that even radio, early movies, and television introduced pressures to project idealized selves and compare oneself to others. The major difference today is that these pressures are interactive: everyone participates, producing content for views, likes, and attention. This affects virtually everyone, as people are constantly exposed to curated versions of life that suggest perfection, even though no one actually lives that way. The book also notes a growing backlash, with some stepping away from social media and choosing to live simpler lives, less connected to screens and constant visibility.

Another key idea the book explores is how screens can contribute to the dehumanization of people, particularly within social media spaces and political discourse. When interactions take place primarily through screens, individuals are more easily reduced to positions or opposing sides rather than seen as neighbors with shared, everyday experiences. This shift encourages an “us versus them” mindset, where disagreement becomes abstract and personal context is lost. The book suggests that this distance can make empathy more difficult and nuance easier to ignore.

From my perspective, the book may resonate most with readers who are newer to these ideas or who want an accessible introduction to media dynamics. I had hoped for deeper exploration of topics such as political manipulation, disinformation, or platform power, but the chapters focus primarily on foundational concepts.

In my opinion, this makes it a good book for communications or political science classes, or for those beginning to consider how social media affects people and culture today. It offers a clear, accessible introduction to social media and performance culture, providing useful insights into how digital media shapes behavior, perception, and social expectations.

Thanks to NetGalley and HarperOne for providing an advance copy

[Richard Derus · Rating 3 out of 5]

Real Rating: 3.25* of five

The Publisher Says: From the popular and award-winning staff writer for The Atlantic, an eye-opening look at how the current media landscape has incentivized us to see our fellow citizens as characters in an ongoing entertainment—and how we can fight back against this phenomenon.

Whether it’s our reality-television-star President or our expertly curated Instagram feeds, the line between fact and fiction—between what’s real and what’s fabricated for entertainment—has never been more blurred. Screen People explores what happens when we cede our reality to spectacle. Megan Garber explains how today’s internet-inflected culture conditions us to see one another not as people but as characters in an ongoing show, and how some of our most chronic and harmful social conditions—loneliness, depression, mistrust, misinformation, cynicism—stem from our demand for diversion.

In ten chapters, each themed around an element of stagecraft—from “The Producers,” who edit our reality, to “The Props,” the strangers we turn into objects of our amusement, to “the Haters,” the worshipful Qanon-types who expect the prophecies of their anonymous leader to play out on live television—Garber argues that this comedy of our daily lives is quickly becoming tragedy. And we can’t understand our politics without first understanding our culture.

Like The Anxious Generation but about our media diet, Plot Twist shows why Megan Garber is one of the most respected and widely-read journalists of our day. It is an urgent, page-turning, and dazzling look at how we entertained ourselves into our current predicament, and how we might find our way out of the maze of misinformation and chaos.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA NETGALLEY. THANK YOU.

My Review: My key take-away from this read was the new-to-me framing of social media as "two-way screens." I find that idea very useful in understanding the intense and very recent driver of our twentieth-century discovery of the joys of staring at things coupled with our ancient desire to be heard.

It's an important text but I felt it might just end my life as a sentient being from the numbing effect of too many wrong examples that don't amplify the argument (or even sometimes make sense to me) coupled to no examples of things that badly need explication.


HarperOne wants $14.99 for an ebook. Borrow it from the library.

[Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

Every time I read another book about the perils of social media I wonder why it took so long. Most of these works tend to be either denunciations by semi-luddites overwhelmed by (evil) technology or regretful apologies of reformed social media junkies. Megan Garber is much more the latter, not the former. "Screen People" sounds a rather belated alarm but it does contain some fascinating insights.

Garber, who covers media & entertainment for The Atlantic, casts a wide net here. And she knows her stuff. Among many others, she makes the excellent point that a few social visionaries saw this coming almost 50 years ago, especially Neil Postman's "Amusing Ourselves to Death" and Christopher Lasch's "Culture of Narcissism." To a certain extent (and I've read both), these works take a more academic approach than Garber - it's generally easier to hurl thunderbolts from the proverbial ivory tower - whose view is obviously much closer to the ground. Her anecdotes are illuminating and her thoughtful scholarship goes down easy.

As someone who was in the room when social media blew up the complacent media universe, I often wonder why more of us weren't more prescient about where all this was headed. Too many, including Garber, don't appear to have seen the oncoming train until the online world started to impact presidential elections. It's doubtful the genie's going back in bottle anytime soon.

A brief quibble about the subtitle: "How We Entertained Ourselves into a State of Emergency." The best part of the book looks at the why and how this all happened, but Garber's finger of blame points more to the social media industry's (and politician's) manipulations than to "ourselves." Sure, it's hard to disregard the human facts of loneliness and egotism, but it's also a bit like throwing a lighted match into the barn, then wondering why it burned to the ground. And there aren't many solutions proposed for this "State of Emergency."

But I digress. "Screen People" is an excellent cautionary tale well worth your time.

[Christina Davis · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a fan of Neil Postman's writing, I found this to be a great book building on our more modern expansion of screens into our day-to-day lives and what it means for individuals + our society at large. Much of this information wasn't new to me but to have it all packaged together really drove home the point of how much screens have transformed the way we interact with each other and our world.

I really appreciated how much the author touched on a variety of topics affected by the proliferation of screens - most notably the show-ification of our language about our lives ("do it for the plot," "main character energy"), the incentivization of information to be interesting and simple rather than true and complex (infotainment), the flattening of reality into personal theater where others are simply characters (NPCs) who don't receive any acknowledgement, the radicalization of our discourse because we don't see others as people, and the enmeshing of surveillance into our lives so completely that we no longer see it as a violation.

I highlighted many lines in this book but one that sticks out, especially when considering social media, is this: "The medium is the moral. And the medium, here, offers tacit permission to treat other people as imagery: manipulable, compliant, expendable."

I will note that there was more repetition of ideas across the book than I would've expected, as if it needed to be structured in another way so a point could be made succinctly rather that repeated in various sections. But maybe in this environment where screens have diminished the ability to focus on and retain information, this is actually the right move.

Thanks to NetGalley & HarperOne for the opportunity to read this book!

[Jacqueline · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins for the ARC! This book touches on one of the most important questions of modern day consumerism: how has X been affected by the proliferation of social media. Our increasingly digital lives mean that so much of what used to require tangible connection can now be done with little to no interaction with other human beings. Or even worse: there is interaction but through the screen and with a level of decreased awareness for the personhood of those we are interacting with. I was drawn to this book because this is a topic I’m passionate about studying, both for fun and in academia. But unfortunately, I felt that the book itself fell a little flat. The writing came across as too verbose and a bit redundant; it seemed to be angling for dramatic, punchy quotables rather than simply explaining the point. A strength of the book is the varied examples and stories pulled. I rather liked that it felt like a collection of opinion essays instead of a dry academic publication. I would love to revisit Screen People with a book club, as I think each chapter brings to light several important discussion points. Hopefully more people will read this soon and I am grateful for the ARC and the chance to review.

[Katie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a well-written and important book that everyone should consider reading today. Even though most of what I read in the book wasn't new to me, it is nonetheless filled with important insights. Garber updates "The medium is the message" to "The medium is the moral," and offers many important examples of how screen-based "infotainment" has tainted our abilities to think and to empathize. Occasionally, some comments felt digressive, but everything comes back eventually to screens and infotainment. This book is a must-read for fans of Neil Postman's Amusing Ourselves to Death or anyone concerned about the direction American culture is heading. I would have liked it even better if there were more concrete examples of how to move forward in a more positive direction, but that can be found in other books, and Garber's points about language are spot-on. I rate this book 4.5 stars rounded up to 5.

Thank you to NetGalley and HarperOne for the free eARC! I post this review with my honest opinions.

Note: If you are a big fan of Trump, you will probably not enjoy this book's comments on him.

[Megan Manzano · Rating 4 out of 5]

A big thanks to the publisher for this ARC.

Screen People was an excellent examination of how social media/constant exposure has led our society to only care about things that are fast and provide entertainment. Garber traces the history of technology from radio to TV to the internet to explain how each development led to a change in focus; one example she gives is before the TV, rooms used to be more like conversation pits so everyone could engage with each other. Now, our society mostly operates on individualism that treats even casual events—like two people having a meet cute—as fodder for the internet. Expanding outward, she traces reality TV and how that has mapped onto our news, conversations, friends, and most notably, politics.

I thought overall this was a great read with much to be garnered from it. However, this felt like a primer and as someone who has learned/reflected on a lot of these topics before, I wanted the book to push the needle further. But I think this is a great book for classrooms or someone beginning to dive into how and what social media has done to our brains and capacity as people.

[Abee Bittle · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book explores how social media has culturally, socially, and psychologically impacted modern society. Garber is a journalist whose writing is inviting and cuts to the heart of her point.

Very quickly I realized this was a book for me to read in stages so I could walk away and ruminate on her points. This book reads, to me, much more like a long article than a book.

Garber approaches the ubiquity of social media’s influence with surgical precision. When something is so common, it’s accepted without question or comment; Garber shatters this sensation. What’s the result of when the lines between entertainment and facts are blurred? Are we consumers, products, content, or an ever changing combination? She prods the reader to question our screen based lives and reminds us that despite the power of AI & algorithms, we are in charge of how we spend our time and what we allow to shape our view of the world.

Thank you, NetGalley and HarperOne for the eARC of this book. All opinions are my own.
This book will be published 4/21/2026.

[Lauren · Rating 3 out of 5]

Screen People by Megan Garber is an examines how screens entertain us- sometimes to a detriment.

Garber presents insightful and well-researched perspectives on how screens, celebrity culture, and the attention economy influence our self-perception. Exploring the notion that we increasingly view ourselves as characters, performing for hypothetical audiences.

However, as some reviewers have noted, this might have been better suited as a series in The Atlantic rather than a full-length book. The arguments get repetitive and eventually, the organization begins to resemble an extended essay more than a cohesive, progressive book.


Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins for the ARC! 

[Natalie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Starting with the dress debacle of 2015 (is it blue and black or white and gold?) to generative AI in 2026, Garber discusses how screens entertain us- sometimes to a detriment. No screen is without criticism as Garber dives into reality TV shows, true crime, court cases, social media, and more. This book is informative without being too long, and the narrator brings the story to life. Anyone who is interested in diving into how screens affect our lives should check this one out.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced audiobook copy of this title from NetGalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

[Kassie Rankin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thank you to HarperOne for an eARC of this book!

Overall, I enjoyed this book and all of the topics. But there were definitely some chapters that I was more interested in than others.
While there was a connection of topics throughout each chapter, I didn't think it had the best flow throughout the book.

I enjoyed hearing about how technology has psychologically changed us as people and how we do almost everything or think about things.
I enjoyed hearing about how social media can change our perceptions of history and facts due to what we see online.

Overall this was an interesting read, just not my favorite.

[Eric Rovie · Rating 3 out of 5]

In an attempt to update McLuhan and Postman for the digital age, Atlantic staff writer Megan Gerber unpacks many memorable and terrible moments from the last 10 years to argue that by becoming “screen people” we have placed ourselves in a “state of emergency.” I agree with her thesis, and many of the examples she offers are laser-focused: the ability to connect Zimbardo’s Stanford Prison Experiment to Trader Joe’s and on through OnlyFans and into Bentham’s Panopticon is something that takes a clever writer, and Gerber is that. But there are many places where the reader has to remind themself that there is actually a claim and the examples are there to support it.

[Melissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you to Netgalley and Harper Audio for the advanced listener's copy of Screen People.

I found Screen People to be a really interesting listen. Megan Garber explores the ways screens shape our lives, relationships, and culture in a thoughtful and engaging way, and I came away with plenty to think about.

Courtney Patterson did an excellent job with the narration. Her pacing was steady and natural, which helped make the nonfiction content easy to absorb and kept me engaged throughout the audiobook.

Overall, this was a worthwhile listen that combines cultural observation with thoughtful insights about the world we live in today.

[Mbur · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyed the positioning of how people are the content themsleves on the screens we see, now more than ever. That this new stage of media being the message, metaphor, and now the moral. How as a society we've shifted once again from oral communication traditions, to a text based paradigm with the printing press, back to a visual based way of communication. When it comes to the modern influencers and their treatment of their posts as currency, the idol is the measure of the worshiper.

Not a full 5/5 due to the last 2 chapters being redundant.

[Brian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Garber's heart is in the right place, and I don't disagree with anything written here, it just seemed to be mostly a collection of quotes and observations without a lot of deep analysis. The jacket says "an eye opening book at how the current media landscape conditions us...and how we can fight back". There wasn't much offered in the way of "fighting back" and the somewhat optimistic note the book ends on feels a little strained.

[Natalie K · Rating 4 out of 5]

Decent book overall! An interesting current and historical look at how our obsession with screens and society has changed us. I could have done without some of the politicized stuff (specifically, about the 2020 election) but overall an interesting book.

Thank you to NetGalley for the free review copy.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

This cautionary treatise is a must read for anyone concerned with how we have become addicted to the internet. Reality, alternative facts have become intertwined, and many find it difficult to see others as anything more than characters in a scripted show as they demand more and more entertainment. Worth your time to read.

[Jade Augustine · Rating 1 out of 5]

I feel like this book couldn't decide what it wanted to be. I was expecting it to be about how we interact with screens and was maybe hoping for something actionable to be found here, but instead a lot of it was more or less political commentary.

Of course, there's nothing wrong with that in itself, but I feel like half of this should have been a separate book entirely.

[Ryan T · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read like a long Atlantic article. Go figure. Most of this did not feel like it necessarily changed my views, just more eloquently summarized the discomfort I feel with the state of things.

Argument was stated pretty early on and didn’t go super far past that. But I agree with the argument? Don’t think it diverges far from academic work on media but is more accessible

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another subtitle for Screen People might be "Let Us Count the Ways Media Has Ruined Us." Like most jeremiads, it is long on lament and short on hope. However, its conclusions are well-argued and well-supported with references to social critics and popular culture. The greatest fault is that Megan Garber offers no endnotes or an index. Those omissions undermine her authority.