From Screens to Stories: How Books Can Reignite Our Imaginations
By Jen Hubert Swan, Library Department Chair, Hackley School
I’m worried about the health of our imaginations. In the fabled days before social media and Artificial Intelligence, our imaginations worked overtime to create our memories and show us the future. Children imagined other worlds and fairy lands; young people imagined leaving home, starting college and building new relationships; adults imagined new products, processes and positions in the workplace or at home. We imagined our families, communities, societies into existence. We created the vision. We made the pictures.
How did we make the pictures? Through words and language, of course. Our imaginations were fed on sentences and stories that populated newspapers, magazines and books. There were TV and movie screens, but they were limited and limiting. And they were communal. You went to the movies with friends. You watched TV after dinner with your family. You shared the experience. Then we talked to each other about the books we read and the movies we watched. We looked at each other’s faces when we spoke, observed each others’ body language, saw our humanity reflected back to us in our friends’ and family’s eyes.
Now as we scroll, click and “like” on small, solitary screens, the pictures are provided. Our brains are crowded with piles of cute puppies, slick celebrity couples, cartoon hearts, perky self-care messages. We speak to each other through DMs and texts, and we feel odd when we have to communicate IRL (in real life). The part of our brain that makes the picture has gone soft and dark. We have contracted that skill out to social media. It has been replaced by Instagram influencers and TikTok dancers and AI generators. And with it, the ability to daydream, to envision and, most of all, to put ourselves in someone else’s shoes has been lessened.
James Baldwin said, “To see the person before me as an enemy or animal is a failure of imagination; to see a neighbor instead is a feat of the imagination.” Because social media feeds us an algorithm of everything we already know, everything we already agree with, it is getting harder and harder to see the person before us as a neighbor if they don’t agree with our viewpoint. We can’t make the picture. Our imaginations are failing.
But the good news is, there is a cure. The delightful elixir that will strengthen our weakened imaginations can be found at your local library, right here at Hackley and even on your shelves at home. It’s a technology as old as the scrolls of Alexandria and as recent as the New York Times best seller list. They are the original building blocks of imagination: books.
While there is plenty of research explaining how reading stimulates imagination, Alexandra Akinchina’s blog post “Reading Enhances Imagination” for the World Literacy Foundation sums it up succinctly: “Reading is one of the best ways to foster imagination. … Reading helps us practice imagination by letting the words describe a certain image while the reader manipulates the picture in the mind. This practice strengthens the mind as it acts like a muscle.” She goes on to say, “Imagination has many benefits. It encourages creativity, which brings about new ideas. It also takes a huge part in innovation. Without imagination, people wouldn’t be able to come up with new inventions and new ideas that help advance society.”
Once we realize our imaginations have been withered by social media, is it too late to resurrect our inventiveness? As a librarian who has witnessed and experienced the creative power of reading, I’m here to tell you that it’s never too late. Ironically, as social media has exploded, so has publishing. According to some sources, there are between 500,000 and one million new titles traditionally published each year. That means there are more literary offerings, in every genre, for every reading taste, than ever before. And we should have plenty of time to read, once we surrender our small screens to a locked drawer. But with so many options, how do we choose?
Dear reader, I thought you’d never ask.
The Hackley Community is lucky enough to have a dynamic team of professional, well-read librarians who love nothing more than to make book recommendations for students and families of all ages. Between the three of us, we read books in every format, genre and level you can conceive of, and we are thrilled to share them with you. Need a picture book about the first day of school or getting a new pet? Easy! Dying to find that Newbery Award winner from when you were a kid to share with your kid? No problem! Want an engrossing mystery to take with you on that long flight this summer? We’ll put together a stack of paperbacks for you to choose from. When it comes to book recommendations, the Hackley Library Department will always come through for our community of readers. No matter what your curiosity or passion, we’ve got you covered.
Feeling the urge to feed your imagination right now? Check out Happy Dreamer by Peter Reynolds, a picture book about a young boy discovering all the different ways of dreaming (“Space Dreamer,” “Fierce Dreamer,” “Giant Dreamer”). Or pick up Here in the Real World by Sara Pennyacker, a novel about two middle schoolers creating an imaginary kingdom in a vacant lot, without a cell phone to be found. Or how about Lovely War by Julie Berry, a sweeping WWI historical saga that mixes romance, trench warfare and squabbling Greek gods? All of these titles and many, many more are available in our Hackley Libraries: Santomero (Lower School), Sternberg (Upper School) and the new Middle School Library.
And if you are also worried about the health of our collective imaginations, please make a date with a Hackley librarian at your earliest convenience. We have thousands of titles available to fill your literary prescription.
About the Author: Jen Hubert Swan is in her fourth year as the Upper School Librarian and Library Department Chair at Hackley. She previously served 20 years as the Middle School Librarian and Library Department Chair at the Little Red School House & Elisabeth Irwin High School in New York City. Since joining the Hilltop, Jen has worked with the Library Department to update the Hackley Libraries website, created a popular Hackley Libraries Instagram account, started an Upper School student-led Library Advisory Board, and worked with the Upper School Administration and English Department to establish a student choice summer reading program. She has enjoyed being a Junior/Senior Prom chaperone, one half of the dynamic “Swanchida” Upper School advisory/homeroom, and co-chair of the Admissions & Financial Aid Committee for NYSAIS accreditation.
