The History of Storytelling
Why We Love Stories?
Stories are powerful. Everything we do, every day, is based of what we believe.
What we believe is generally a story, or multiple stories, we have heard in our family, with our friends, at school.
Our lives depend mostly on the stories we tell ourselves every day. They move us to act, to follow certain professional pathways or not, to flirt with some people, or not, etc.
The most influential people we know are great storytellers. Think about Steve Jobs, Barack Obama, etc.
Let's revise the history behind the storytelling and see what can we learn about.
Storytelling may be the oldest technology we ever invented. Before writing and calculations, stories, made of imagination, voice and memory, started to shape human’s lives.
Where did stories born?
Anthropologists believe storytelling began in communal fires, where early humans shared experiences, warned each other about dangers, or imagined spirits and gods (Boyd, 2009).
“The fire was our first movie screen.” – Gottschall, 2012
The storyteller was often more than an entertainer: a guardian of knowledge, moral guide, and even healer (Campbell, 2008).
Stories as tools of survival
According to evolutionary psychologists, the ability to imagine future or hypothetical scenarios may have offered an adaptive advantage, allowing humans to simulate threats and social dynamics (Boyd, 2009; Dunbar, 1998).
Stories encoded social rules, group memories, and survival knowledge.
From oral to writing
For thousands of years, humanity depended on oral tradition to share knowledge, beliefs, and cultural identity. But around 3000 BCE, something revolutionary happened: writing systems emerged in Mesopotamia, Egypt and the Indus Valley (Goody, 1987).
With writing came the ability to preserve stories across time and space, making memory durable and portable.
The invention of writing wasn't just about accounting or administration, it was also about preserving sacred texts, epic tales, and moral codes (Goody, 1987).
Writing transformed storytelling into a fixed medium. While oral stories changed with each telling, written texts could be replicated and canonized (Goody, 1987).
The democratization of narrative
At first, writing was reserved for scribes, priests and elites.
But over centuries, literacy spread, and with it, access to different forms of storytelling. The invention of the alphabet made writing simpler and more accessible (Powell, 2009).
The cultural mirror
As societies evolved, so did the stories they told. From tragic masks on Greek stages to whispered tales in Arabian nights, storytelling became a cultural mirror, reflecting desires, fears, values, and power struggles.
It wasn’t just a way to entertain, it was a way to negotiate identity, challenge authority, and express belief.
The Arabic oral tradition and the power of imagination
In the Islamic Golden Age, storytelling flourished in another form: oral tales woven into collections, passed from generation to generation by poets, merchants, and travelers.
These tales mix fantasy, humor, politics, and philosophy, embodying the plural soul of Arab culture (Irwin, 1994).
Examples:
One Thousand and One Nights (Alf Layla wa-Layla) became an emblem of imagination and resistance.
Scheherazade, the protagonist, tells stories to survive, using narrative as strategy, seduction, and power.
“The storyteller survives because she tells stories. The listener is transformed because he listens.” — Irwin, 1994
The rise of the modern novel
In the other hand, in early modern Europe, as literacy expanded, a new form of storytelling emerged: the novel.
The printing press democratized narrative. Now, stories weren’t just for kings or gods; they were for the everyday reader. Miguel de Cervantes’ Don Quixote (1605) mocked old heroic tales while exploring dreams, madness, and reality (Bakhtin, 1981).
The novel became a space to explore individual interiority, love, desire, alienation, reflections of the modern self (Bakhtin, 1981).
Storytelling and the brain
Have you ever found yourself so immersed in a story that you forgot where you were?
That’s not magic: it’s neuroscience.
Stories captivate us because they speak the brain’s native language: emotion, causality and meaning.
Stories trigger the brain like real life
When we hear a story, especially one with characters, conflict and emotion, our brains react as if we were experiencing it ourselves.
Studies show that narrative activates not only the language-processing areas of the brain, but also regions linked to sensory experiences and emotions (Zak, 2015).
A story about someone running can activate the motor cortex; a story about heartbreak can activate the anterior insula, which processes empathy and pain (Zak, 2015).
Stories release powerful chemicals
Good stories, especially emotional ones, trigger the release of neurotransmitters that impact attention and memory (Zak, 2015):
Dopamine: released during suspenseful or emotionally intense moments. It enhances focus and retention.
Oxytocin: released when we feel empathy for a character. It boosts trust, connection, and generosity.
Cortisol and adrenaline: released during tense or dramatic moments. These sharpen our alertness.
Storytelling in the digital age
The digital age has brought us back to something ancient: oral storytelling.
Just like our ancestors told tales around the fire, we now share stories through voice notes, videos, memes, podcasts, and live streams.
We’re seeing not the end of storytelling, but its rebirth in new forms.
Social media platforms have turned everyday users into micro-storytellers. Whether it’s a personal vlog, a viral meme, or a 60-second narrative, we are constantly crafting mini-stories to share ideas and stories.
From ancient fires to digital feeds, storytelling has always been more than entertainment.
It's how we make sense of the world and our place in it. It has shaped civilizations, challenged empires, nurtured beliefs, and even sparked revolutions.
Today, as we scroll, swipe, and stream through a vast amount of narratives, we are reminded of something ancient: the need to feel seen, heard and connected.
Whether it’s through an instagram post, a podcast, or a novel, storytelling remains our most human act.