Do Stories Save Humanity?
by Jenny Hansen
Most of us live in a world that’s always connected. Our screens light up, our feeds refresh, our attention splinters. We have online friends all over the world. And yet. . .current research shows that most people feel lonelier than ever. Like significantly more lonely, especially for the younger crowd.
While the social isolation of the pandemic didn't help, the percentage of people reporting that they are "extremely lonely" hasn't significantly decreased in the time since. The reason for this surprised me.
One of the significant drivers of loneliness. . .
Technology. Research is finding solid evidence that loneliness is correlated to technology. The article I linked to above reports that in January 2025:
- Digital device addiction is at an all-time high. 56% of respondents consider themselves addicted to their digital devices.
- Fifty-seven percent of U.S. adults surveyed agree that technological advancements have contributed to increased feelings of loneliness. Whereas just 10% disagree (the remaining 33% are neutral).
- Devices are a form of escapism for many Americans. 52% of respondents say they’re at least somewhat dependent on technology as a form of escapism from everyday life.
So why do stories matter?
We're writers. We absolutely believe stories are essential. But let's zoom out from us to the people who don't have fiction in their daily lives. What could stories be doing for them?
In the cacophony of today's world, stories are stillness. They slow us down enough to listen. To ourselves, to others, to what it means to be human.
Stories remind us who we are.
They connect us, calm us, and give us language for chaos. Especially for avid readers, stories aren't (just) decoration for the soul, they’re an important structure that keeps that soul standing strong.
As writers, that makes our work profoundly important.
Let me tell you a story about a very uncomfortable car ride.
Backstory: From my earliest memory, I've always been obsessed with books. And I hang out with a lot of other writers, so I didn't really understand that there was anything unusual about my reading habits.
Fast-forward to 2012, and I'm in a car going to a holiday lunch with three of my favorite ladies from work: an accountant, the HR director, and one of the admins. My HR friend brought up a great book that she'd read, and we started talking about it. The accountant chimed in that she'd read four times as many books that year as she did the year before.
I was so excited for her, and super-excited for me, thinking I'd met an insane book-lover like myself. My daughter was a toddler, so my own reading had been cut in half. I expressed that lack and how much it bummed me out. And that's when things went downhill.
The Accountant: "How many books did you read this year, Jen?"
Me: "Probably between a hundred and a hundred and fifty. I wouldn't trade my baby girl, but I miss my old 'Bed Days.' I'd bring two or three books and a bunch of snacks to bed and read all day long. Those were the best! How many books did you read this year?"
And there was dead silence in the car. Weird silence. The kind of silence that tells you that crazy just landed and everyone's trying to decide what to do with it.
Finally, the accountant said, "Four. I read four books this year. And I was super proud of that five minutes ago!"
It was the first time I'd ever been mortified about reading. Mostly I was mortified about embarrassing her. But under it all, I was so sad for her. She'd read one book the year before. ONE. I'd have had a mental breakdown.
How does anyone handle life-ing without great stories?
I didn't really understand how much stories help humans cope until I read Lisa Cron's Wired for Story. I highly recommend it for anyone, but especially for writers. You can read her Writers in the Storm posts here.
3 Reasons Why Readers NEED Stories
Most writers don’t just read for plot. We read to feel something true. We read to travel to different worlds and meet new friends. We read to light up our brains and feel more alive. In doing so, many of us quietly repair pieces inside ourselves.
But what about readers? What are they gaining from reading fiction?
1. Stories Build Empathy
Reading fiction strengthens our ability to understand others’ emotions and perspectives. As stated above, this goes for readers and writers.
Research shows that when we follow a character’s inner life, our brain lights up in the same regions used for real-world empathy. In a separate 2022 study, researchers found that fiction readers consistently perform better on emotional recognition and perspective-taking tasks.
In other words, when a reader enters a great story, they practice being another person. That rehearsal of empathy is a muscle that gets tuned up with reading fiction.
2. Stories Help Us Process Emotion
Stories give readers a safe place to experience big emotions. Feelings like grief, rage, fear, and love can all be felt without risk. When we project our own worries or hopes onto fictional characters, we can confront feelings we might avoid in real life. Stories provide a mental rehearsal for courage and healing.
That's no coincidence. Humans have always learned through story.
3. Stories Offer Calm
Clinical research on bibliotherapy (aka that cool word meaning "reading as therapy") shows that stories reduce anxiety and depressive symptoms and foster emotional resilience. Stories remind us that even pain has an arc and that every ending carries the seed of meaning. And it explains why so many readers love the "happily ever after" of romance.
3 Reasons Why Writers Need Stories Too
If readers heal through stories, writers create the medicine. And the cool thing about writing is that same medicine cures us too.
1. Writing Restores Meaning
Writers make chaos make sense.
When life feels scattered, writing allows us to create something that makes sense out of an idea or event that made no sense to us. In his book, Opening Up, psychologist James Pennebaker shares his research showing that "even short bursts of expressive writing can reduce stress, strengthen immune function, and boost mental well-being."
When we shape emotion into words, we stop being victims of our stories and become authors of them.
2. Writing Reconnects Us
Writing connects our inner world with the outer one. Each word you write becomes part of a larger conversation about what it means to be alive. Somewhere, someday, someone will read it and think their generation's equivalent of, "OMG, me too."
That moment of recognition is like building a bridge over a fragmented world. Bridges matter, and so does your story.
3. Writing Creates Flow
When we lose ourselves in creation (what psychologist Mihály Csíkszentmihályi called flow) our brain chemistry shifts. Dopamine rises. Our cortisol level drops. Our inner critic quiets. Flow is the mind’s most natural meditation.
Writing is a vital act of service.
Writers map the emotional terrains others are often afraid to cross. We go first. We name what hurts and what heals. When readers see themselves reflected in our words, they rediscover their own capacity to endure. And they maintain their belief in hope.
Every short story, blog post, or scene that helps someone breathe easier or feel less alone exemplifies humanity being healed in real time.
I hope you put some version of this on your writing wall:
- Creativity isn’t self-indulgence.
It’s self-preservation. - When the world feels fragmented,
stories put us back together. - When life feels meaningless,
stories help reframe it. - When we can’t speak what we feel,
our stories can whisper it for us.
I truly believe stories can save humanity one word at a time.
Final Thoughts
If you ever doubt the worth of what you’re doing, remember just a few things.
Every story you finish makes the world a little less lonely. And every time you let a character reveal something true, you remind someone else that being human is still a story worth living.
Keep going. Your words matter. They always have.
Now it's your turn. What does reading and/or writing do for you? (They might be different things!) Have you noticed any emotional difference between the people in your life who read fiction and those who don't? Does it change your own emotional set when you don't take time to read?
* * * * * *
About Jenny
By day, Jenny Hansen provides brand storytelling, LinkedIn coaching, and copywriting for accountants and financial services firms. By night, she writes humor, memoir, women’s fiction, and short stories. After 20+ years as a corporate trainer, she’s delighted to sit down while she works.
Find Jenny here at Writers In the Storm, or online on Facebook or Instagram.
All photos created in Canva Premium.
Source List:
I read widely for this article, with a lot of journals and research that I'll be happy to share if you like to geek out on things like I do. But an article someone sent me from the Free Press on Substack about an author named David Foster Wallace is what started me down the rabbit hole. In the mid 1990s, he predicted that technology addiction would destroy us. He predicted all that screen time would make people far less connected and far more depressed. And just think, he made this prediction before social media!
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26 comments on “Do Stories Save Humanity?”
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Amen to all this!
I'm always amazed at what I learn about myself when I write challenging essays or book chapters. And when reading some of the books that have crossed my path, I can feel, physically, my very brain cells stretching.
Never let a machine think for you!
I 100% agree, Sally! I always tell people: I am calmer, funnier, wiser, and smarter when I'm writing regularly. That's just the way it is. 🙂
Awesome message! I have a string of Christmas lights flashing in my mind. So many insights. So enlightening. Lots to think about. Big thanks. Big hugs.
Awwwww. Hi Chris! It's great to see your face here at WITS. And honestly, I thought about this article for a lo-o-ong time before I wrote it. The research on the levels of loneliness and depression were deeply troubling.
A long time ago, I realized I didn't need to write. I need fiction, story. But it doesn't have to be written. I love film and TV. Even art can have story. I'm okay if my work is only in my head.
So why do I write? Two reasons. If I'm spending so much time in my own little world, I might be a crazy lady. But if I'm a writer, it's normal. And there is something to be said for the connection created when your work can be shared. (Plus, maybe I'll make a little cash.)
You're totally normal in my book, Debbie. 🙂
And yes, to the books AND other mediums. We love seeing a great play, mostly because of stories.
This is a keeper! I have those days when I question the time I’ve devoted to writing and studying writing and talking about writing. And reading. You offer encouragement! Thank you!
Thanks, Chris! And keep on writing!!!
I agree with all of the above, Jenny, 100%. No one I know these days spends much time reading, and none of them write. Instead, they’re glued to their phones, video, or both. What I notice is that they’re agitated and grouchy. Quite frankly, it’s difficult for me to be around them.
Writing does for me everything you mentioned. It wrings emotions out of me, allows me to work out issues, and calms me. My fantasy world is home, the characters like friends. Reading and writing make me less lonely. If highly stressed, I’ll even turn to my own stories for comfort, though certain other books do the same.
Exactly! I have so many friends who live in a high state of anxiety and angst. When I suggested to one of them that reading might might her feel better, she went off.
"I read all the time!" (She reads NEWS all the time.)
And I just tried to be gentle with her and suggested that fiction might feel better than the news (because the news is depressing enough to suck joy and creativity out of any soul).
She just feels that she doesn't have time to spend on books, and I know she's not alone in that feeling. The world would be much better off if more people found the quiet joy of FICTION.
Being a writer has made me MUCH pickier as to what I like to read. I have DNF'd sooo many books since i became more serious about it (and better). If the dialogue or character behavior is unrealistic,or if the plot is clearly designed to advance an author's socio-political agenda, that's an automatic dump for me. I do believe we need books and stories to provide light in darkness...but it seems authors are less skilled at providing that anymore, or the market is so saturated it's hard to find them.
Life is too short to read stories that don't resonate for you. You're wise to be picky.
And there's a ton of great books out there. One of my favorites in recent years was by Elizabeth Weins. The first book in the series is "Code Name: Verity."
For me, as a writer, the main reason to create fiction IS empathy in the reader, for a character with little representation but hugely common in the real world: a disabled, chronically ill former physician whose illness is responsible for her losing the ability to exercise her profession, who ultimately learns to do, slowly and fruitfully, one of the few things left to her: write stories.
The number of disabled/chronically ill characters in fiction is small - the very concept has cooties. People don't realize that about 20% of adults have a disability/illness that makes their life extra hard. They also don't realize it usually isn't catching, but sometimes is, spectacularly (remember the AIDS epidemic?).
Even the sick often think of themselves as damaged, and not worthy - because illness is seen as failure, and we are taught to be afraid of both.
Too many times that rare sick character in fiction is used to inspire people (we call it 'inspiration porn') and flog some healthy but lazy and recalcitrant 'normal' person into shaping up.
Or the sick person serves as wing-person to a healthy one - and comic relief.
Or they sacrifice themselves for a healthy person.
Or they manage to tidy themselves away - by suicide or other means - so as not to bother said 'normals.'
I have spent the past quarter-century writing a novel trilogy, Pride's Children, to show a different side, a character who is fully human - and stuck where she can't escape - wanting the same things everyone wants, and battling the same beliefs about her condition that society imposes.
If you read the novels (a single story, and I'm still working on the third volume), among other things you will LIVE as a disabled/chronically ill person, and see what it's really like to be human anyway - and I hope you will develop the same empathy you might have had BEING her. And then go back to real life (if you're healthy) affected by what you've seen, or, if you're not healthy, feeling seen.
But this is all SUBTEXT to the real story of 'obsession, betrayal, and love.' It's not the story but it IS the story.
There are nowhere near enough of these stories.
I think this is beautiful, Alicia. Utterly beautiful.
I always appreciate your tenacity, but it's really great to see your "why" so clearly.
Awesome essay, Jenny! Like Sally, I've learned so much about myself while writing my fantasy romance series. Now I'm taking a dive into scriptwriting a sci-fi. This adventure will open up more insights into my psyche, I'm sure!
Thanks, Barb! It's lovely to see you here at WITS. 🙂
I 100% agree with you and Sally. How do we ever really know how we feel about something if we're not writing about it??
Congrats on your new writing venture. That sounds amazing!
Thank you, Jenny, for this very timely post. For months now I've been struggling with persistent depression that's made writing all but impossible. So thank you for this lovely reminder that creativity is necessary to our souls and our sanity. I've long felt that stories can be healing - and these days they provide a way to regain our balance in this insane world we find ourselves in.
Depression is brutal, KJ. And so hard to manage. I'm very sorry you're going through that. Being kind to myself, acts of service, counseling and meds were how I got through it. You'll find your winning combo and make it through too.
Because you WILL get through it.
I'm wishing you the comfort of reading and writing great stories!
Thank you so much for your kind words, Jenny 💖
Hugs.
We need to remember that some digital devices are used for reading, and while it's not the same brain activity as reading a print book, it's a great way to read.
I'll always write.
I'll always write too, Denise. And I read 90% of my books via Kindle, but I use a Paperwhite. The other Kindles are too bright and busy and device-y to me. But I definitely hear what you're saying.
Hi Jenny!
I had a long think after reading this, and chatted with the hubby about it as well.
Neither of us reads as many books as we once did, in part due to reading and responding on the cellphone.
Reading and writing books, for me, is almost always bibliotherapy. The Charlie Chameleon stories are all book therapy for kids, emphasis on empathy.
When I was flat broke I used books for travel when vacations weren't affordable.
Books are awesome, and I have always felt this to be true.
I agree! Books have allowed me to travel the world, whether I've been to a place or not. 🙂
I love your Charlie Chameleon stories, and especially how they give kids such a wonderful path to follow. Those books are a vital act of service for sure!
Wonderful article - thank you! I'm an author, and my daughter is a visual artist. I will share this with her as much of it applies to other creative forms as well.
I agree, S.M.! This totally applies to multiple areas of storytelling. Thanks so much for sharing your thoughts, and I hope your daughter enjoys the post. 🙂