Product Description

From the author of the New York Times bestseller Mind Wide Open comes a groundbreaking assessment of popular culture as it's never been considered before: through the lens of intelligence.

The $10 billion video gaming industry is now the second-largest segment of the entertainment industry in the United States, outstripping film and far surpassing books. Reality television shows featuring silicone-stuffed CEO wannabes and bug-eating adrenaline junkies dominate the ratings. But prominent social and cultural critic Steven Johnson argues that our popular culture has never been smarter.

Drawing from fields as diverse as neuroscience, economics, and literary theory, Johnson argues that the junk culture we're so eager to dismiss is in fact making us more intelligent. A video game will never be a book, Johnson acknowledges, nor should it aspire to be-and, in fact, video games, from Tetris to The Sims to Grand Theft Auto, have been shown to raise IQ scores and develop cognitive abilities that can't be learned from books. Likewise, successful television, when examined closely and taken seriously, reveals surprising narrative sophistication and intellectual demands.

Startling, provocative, and endlessly engaging, Everything Bad Is Good for You is a hopeful and spirited account of contemporary culture. Elegantly and convincingly, Johnson demonstrates that our culture is not declining but changing-in exciting and stimulating ways we'd do well to understand. You will never regard the glow of the video game or television screen the same way again.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #223995 in Books
• Published on: 2005-05-05
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 256 pages

Amazon.com Review
In his fourth book, Everything Bad Is Good for You, iconoclastic science writer Steven Johnson (who used himself as a test subject for the latest neurological technology in his last book, Mind Wide Open) takes on one of the most widely held preconceptions of the postmodern world--the belief that video games, television shows, and other forms of popular entertainment are detrimental to Americans' cognitive and moral development. Everything Good builds a case to the contrary that is engaging, thorough, and ultimately convincing.

The heart of Johnson's argument is something called the Sleeper Curve--a universe of popular entertainment that trends, intellectually speaking, ever upward, so that today's pop-culture consumer has to do more "cognitive work"--making snap decisions and coming up with long-term strategies in role-playing video games, for example, or mastering new virtual environments on the Internet-- than ever before. Johnson makes a compelling case that even today's least nutritional TV junk food–the Joe Millionaires and Survivors so commonly derided as evidence of America's cultural decline--is more complex and stimulating, in terms of plot complexity and the amount of external information viewers need to understand them, than the Love Boats and I Love Lucys that preceded it. When it comes to television, even (perhaps especially) crappy television, Johnson argues, "the content is less interesting than the cognitive work the show elicits from your mind."
Johnson's work has been controversial, as befits a writer willing to challenge wisdom so conventional it has ossified into accepted truth. But even the most skeptical readers should be captivated by the intriguing questions Johnson raises, whether or not they choose to accept his answers. --Erica C. Barnett

From Publishers Weekly
Worried about how much time your children spend playing video games? Don't be, advises Johnson—not only are they learning valuable problem-solving skills, they'd probably do better on an IQ test than you or your parents could at their age. Go ahead and let them watch more television, too, since even reality shows can function as "elaborately staged group psychology experiments" to stimulate rather than pacify the brain. With the same winning combination of personal revelation and friendly scientific explanation he displayed in last year's Mind Wide Open, Johnson shatters the conventional wisdom about pop culture as pabulum, showing how video games, television shows and movies have become increasingly complex. Furthermore, he says, consumers are drawn specifically to those products that require the most mental engagement, from small children who can't get enough of their favorite Disney DVDs to adults who find new layers of meaning with each repeated viewing of Seinfeld. Johnson lays out a strong case that what we do for fun is just as educational in its way as what we study in the classroom (although it's still worthwhile to encourage good reading habits, too). There's an important message here for every parent—one they should hear from the source before savvy kids (especially teens) try to take advantage of it. Agent, Lydia Wills at Paradigm. (May)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From School Library Journal
Adult/High School–Johnson puts the much-maligned pastime of playing video games under the microscope and comes up with some startling conclusions concerning the intellectual value and cognitive demands of this pop-culture activity. He argues that it isn't the content of today's games that engages the mind and makes one smarter; rather, it is their ever-increasing level of complexity and sophistication that challenges the mind to grow neurologically. One only comes to understand how to play a game by probing the complex interfaces within its levels to see what works as one goes along. Johnson observes that this is much like real life. He urges parents to sit down with their children and play in order to understand just how mentally challenging the games can be. He extends his argument to TV series such as The Sopranos, 24, Six Feet Under, and Law and Order, all of which, he argues, are multi-threaded and require viewers to think in order to follow the increasingly complex character and plot developments. While the book and its arguments endorsing the cognitive challenges of video games and other mass media are thought-provoking and somewhat convincing, Johnson is less successful in convincing readers that video games–especially the more violent ones–are good for a player's mental health. While the book should be of value for reports, don't be surprised if many students can't resist citing it the next time their parents ask why they haven't finished their homework.–Catherine Gilbride, Farifax County Public Library, VA
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Customer Reviews

Doesn't back ideas up with evidence
You may agree or disagree with the argument presented by the author, it doesn't matter. I for one disagreed.

The main reason I disliked this book is not his thesis, it's the fact that he does not back up his points. For example, a quarter of the book is about why TV is actually good for you, but when he moves onto his discussion of the internet, his first arguments are that at least it's "better to have minds actively composing the soap opera of their own lives than zoning out in front of someone else's." (comparing blogging to tv) He contradicts his own argument at multiple points.

The problem is that the author seems to have started with a controversial idea, then grabbed for examples to back it up, rather than coming to a conclusion based upon the evidence. As other reviews stated, the examples are carefully chosen...

Not to mention the fact that he has no real scientific evidence presented in the book...

"Everything Bad" is middling
Steven Johnson is a man with a mission. He begins his book with a quote from conservative columnist George Will, who complains that modern culture is abysmally stupid and is "infantilizing" our children. Johnson vigorously disagrees. His thesis is that computer games, TV, movies, and the internet are actually making us smarter.

"Everything Bad is Good for You" is divided into two parts, the first analyzing the content of pop culture and the second investigating its effect on people. The opening section on video games is probably the best part of the book. Johnson shows that far from being simplistic, today's computer games are massively complex. To win, gamers must memorize enormous amounts of information, solve difficult puzzles, and keep many different goals in mind simultaneously.

The chapters on television and movies is less convincing, because Johnson focuses almost exclusively on numbers. Current movies and TV shows have more of everything: more characters, more plot lines, and more relationships. Johnson at one point says that a show like 24 has as many characters as a 19th century novel.

What he doesn't tackle is the question of whether more is always better. Might it be that current filmmakers rapidly switch from one thing to another because the audience lacks the patience to focus for a long time? After all, "Meet the Spartans" has hundreds of characters but is generally agreed to be the most moronic film ever made. "X3" introduced dozens of characters but never left any one on screen for more than 90 seconds at a time. Or going back to those 19th century novels, we'd surely agree that the relationships in Jane Austen were much deeper and more subtle than anything we see on TV.

The second half of the book is fairly disappointing compared to the first. Johnson wants to prove that popular culture actually is driving intelligence upward. The only evidence comes from "The Flynn Effect", the observed phenomenon that average IQ scores have risen steadily over the past fifty years. While the Flynn effect does exist, Johnson only touches briefly on the question of whether IQ scores are a reliable measure of intelligence. While they may be rising, other evidence suggests that brain power is dropping. For instance, far more college students are taking remedial classes now than were a generation ago.

Ultimately "Everything Bad is Good for You" is a highly worthwhile read, but for me it was not convincing. I give Johnson credit for many things. His book is crisp, succinct, well-written, and intellectually honest. In the end, though, it does not really refute what it claims to refute. There is ample evidence of the average person growing less mature. For example, young adults take longer than ever to get married, find full time jobs, move out of their parents' houses, and do other things commonly associated with maturity. I'm afraid that George Will may have had a point after all.

Elitism Rules! OK?
This is a provocative book which warrants serious consideration. The author postulates that through the device of the sleeper curve, the various technological developments which pervade popular culture are not dumbing down America, but rather leading to development of a broader range of skills than credited by academic experts.

He sets out his view in sections devoted to video games, film, and very briefly, the internet, and explores the differing skills which are exercised during their consumption.

As someone who has exhibited a preference for aspects of popular culture as opposed to high culture for most of my life, the argument is very attractive at the outset. As one delves deeper into the subject serious questions arise as to whether there is a general case to answer.

Consider video games, where our author testifies to the skills required to play some of the more complex games such as Grand Theft Auto. There is a strong case to be made here but the issue is rather deflated when one considers that the vast majority of game players consume sports and other games which are considerably less complex and demanding.

Film also has a substantial longevity in the popular pantheon of leisure activities. It manages to portray a story and certain sophisticated complexities but still lacks by far the great leap forward that one achieves through reading a novel.

I would reject a notion that the use of the internet provides much of an intellectual challenge, given the degree to which internet consumers access porn sites and where much of the content is clearly aimed at the lower end of the spectrum

Having said all of this, I believe that there is something in the authors argument, but in a more narrow sense. For myself I consider that there are a minority of people within our society who exhibit skill and knowledge improvements as a result of immersion in the complexities and sophistications of certain games, or movies or whatever. The question of whether they are smarter is debatable. I would suggest that the elite to whom I refer demonstrate aptitudes of learning from external stimuli whichare far greater that those of the general populace. This tends to suggest to me however, that those aptitudes are inherited and/or learnt from an environment and upbringing where parents encourage skills of learning and exploring, encouragement and direction etc.

All in all, a worthwhile book subject to some of the caveats which I have alluded to above.