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

這本書是《大西洋月刊》（The Atlantic）廣受好評且獲獎無數的資深撰稿人梅根·加伯（Megan Garber）的作品。她以獨到的眼光探討當前媒體環境如何促使我們將同胞視為實境秀中的「角色」，以及我們該如何反擊這種現象。

無論是曾身為實境秀明星的總統，或是經過專業修飾的 Instagram 動態，現實與虛構之間、真實與為了娛樂而編造的謊言之間，界線從未如此模糊。《螢幕人》（Screen People，暫譯）探索了當我們將現實讓位給「奇觀」時會發生什麼。梅根·加伯解釋了今日受網路影響的文化，如何制約我們將他人看作一場長篇秀中的角色，而非真實的人；同時指出我們最頑固且有害的一些社會現狀——孤獨、憂鬱、不信任、假訊息、憤世嫉俗——皆源於我們對娛樂的渴求。

全書分為十章，每章皆以娛樂元素為主題：從編輯我們現實的「製作人」；到被我們物化為消遣對象的陌生人「臨演」；再到那些崇拜匿名領袖、期待預言在電視直播中實現的 QAnon 信徒「黑粉」。加伯主張，這場日常生活中的喜劇正迅速轉變為悲劇。若不先理解我們的文化，我們就無法理解當下的政治。

本書就像是針對「媒體飲食」版發表的《焦慮世代》（The Anxious Generation），展現了梅根·加伯為何是當代最受尊敬且讀者最廣的記者之一。這是一部緊迫、引人入勝且令人驚嘆的作品，剖析了我們如何透過娛樂將自己困於現狀，以及我們如何從假訊息與混亂的迷宮中找到出路。

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 entertainment—from “The Producers,” who edit our reality, to “The Extras,” 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, Screen People 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.