Screen People cover art

Screen People

How We Entertained Ourselves into a State of Emergency

Pre-order free with Premium Plus
1 credit a month to buy any audiobook in our entire collection.
Unlimited access to our all-you-can-listen catalogue of 15K+ audiobooks and podcasts.
Member-only deals & discounts.
Auto-renews at $16.45/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Screen People

By: Megan Garber
Narrated by: Courtney Patterson
Pre-order free with Premium Plus

Auto-renews at $16.45/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Pre-order for $26.99

Pre-order for $26.99

About this listen

'Incisive' - PUBLISHERS WEEKLY

'A brilliant, funny, omnivorous excavation of how technology and entertainment have warped humanity '
SOPHIE GILBERT, PULITZER PRIZE FINALIST AND AUTHOR OF GIRL ON GIRL
_______

From an award-winning staff writer for the Atlantic, Screen People is an eye-opening look at how the current media landscape conditions us to see everyone as characters in ongoing entertainment - and how we can fight back.

Whether it's our expertly curated Instagram feeds or the reality-television-star US President, the line 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 and explains how today's internet-inflected culture incentivises us to see one another as characters in a show, and how some of our most chronic and harmful social conditions - loneliness, depression, mistrust, misinformation and cynicism - stem from our demand for diversion.

In ten chapters, each themed around an element of entertainment 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.

Screen People shows why Garber is one of the most respected and widely read journalists of our day. This book is an urgent, dazzling look at how we entertained ourselves into our current predicament and shows how we might find our way out of the chaos.©2026 Megan Garber
History & Culture Media Studies Social Sciences Technology & Society

Critic Reviews

A brilliant, funny, omnivorous excavation of how technology and entertainment have warped humanity, finding new meaning in everything from gender reveals and The Masked Singer to QAnon and Marshall McLuhan. Are we doomed? Not as long as Megan Garber is here to show us the light.
A timely study of the internet's toxic effects on American society . . . Anybody who spends time online will sympathise with Garber's insightful, well-curated consideration.
A scathing . . . examination of how the radically shifting contemporary media environment has warped Americans' interactions with one another and the world . . . Incisive.
No reviews yet
In the spirit of reconciliation, Audible acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.