Screen People by Megan Garber

Screen People

Subtitle: How We Entertained Ourselves into a State of Emergency

Author: Megan Garber

Publish Date: April 2026

Read: March 2026

Synopsis: Since 2015, the world, especially our fictional internet world, has gotten increasingly divisive. From heads of state using social media like weapons or the algorithm delivering exactly the content we want (confirmation bias), our ability to distinguish fact from fiction is failing. Dramatically. Megan Garber explores what happens when we allow our reality to become fantasy. When we trade serenity for spectable. Told through the lens of “main characters,” “extras,” “producers,” and other film-lingo, Screen People helps people see their innocuous social media behavior for what it really is: reshaping our inner and outer worlds.

Why does this book beguile? I’ve been recently fascinated by people and their interactions with phones. I’ve been trying to distance myself from the all-encompassing screen world, but many people in my life - regardless of generation - don’t seem to be able to escape it. We sleep with screens, eat with screens, work with screens and we wonder why our society and our mental health is devolving. Screen People is an amazing look at how the history of screens has altered our interaction and perceptions of reality. I particularly enjoyed how Garber equated interpersonal conflict with television. We get mad at people when they don’t react in a way a character on a TV Show or in a Movie would react. What other insidious ways have screens affected our relationships? Do we even fully know yet?

Bookshop.Org Link*: Screen People: How We Entertained Ourselves into a State of Emergency by Megan Garber

Amazon.com Link*: Screen People: How We Entertained Ourselves into a State of Emergency by Megan Garber