Call them disinterested or disengaged. Or maybe just teenagers. In 2016, 80% of U.S. teens reported consuming digital content online daily, versus only 20% who reported reading a book. Yikes! It’s a conversation heard all too often: technology and social media are modern pollutants dumbing down people’s intelligence. But rather than resist, The New York Public Library (NYPL) wanted to meet people exactly where they already were: their phones. So we posted a series of classic novels right to Instagram Stories, thereby hacking social media to further the Library’s public promise to “advance knowledge by providing free and open access to materials and information...” Through the Insta Novels program, The Library was able to leverage Instagram’s existing technology to give millions more users access to great literature. To date, @NYPL’s Instagram following has grown over 73%, exposing 140,000 more people to The Library’s efforts for continuing education.