A fascinating read debunking the suggestion that video games and TV today are threatening our cognitive development. This book convincingly demonstrates the increasing complexity of popular culture and how it's affecting us.

Another captivating book by Steven Johnson. Whether he's writing about ant colonies, brains, sidewalks, sewers, social networks or chaos theory, he has a way of drawing you in by making connections between wide ranging subjects and contemporary takes on the topic. I now have new-found respect for reality TV shows--i had always suspected that there was something more to the shows besides its surface prurient content, but it's the milliseconds of raw emotions that sometimes escapes and shows from people's faces during the show that fascinates and draws people in. If it's true as neuroscience research says, that we are drawn to "faces" and if our mirror neurons can be triggered by other people's emotions, then maybe we should begin to look at other ways of using reality shows...I also had no idea of all the websites--the "metacommentary" that goes on around these shows and other tv shows. It shows how people are really talking about and thinking about pop culture in ways and numbers never conceived of before in history. Johnson makes the point that there are many more hours of metacommentary than there is actual hours in the show! Whether people are writing about it (blogs) or merely reading about it. I, myself, found myself drawn to this metacommentary world after discovering what I've been missing in the TV world when I happened on 2 series i found in the library--the new Battlestar Galactica and David Simon & Ed Burns' The Wire series. If TV can be this good, maybe I should return to watching tv! Johnson devotes a portion of the book about the increasing complexity of tv shows in its use of multiple narrative threads and language/dialogue that is not necessarily explained to the viewer. Instead, you're immediately immersed into their worlds. I thought The Wire was unique in that respect, until I read about other tv series that uses the same device. Also, I was impressed by the fact that people are buying the dvd series and thus watching and re-watching tv series which was never done before. And that, in fact, that this rolling audience in time & space, greatly outnumbers the viewers that watch the series in its original time slot.

In sum, I always learn so much when i read Steven Johnson, even when I think I already knew "enough" about the topic, he still surprises. Smart guy. ( )

This is an important but relatively dry look at how the increasing complexity of popular culture positively impacts our cognitive abilities. ( )

A worthy addition to my library -- investigates the impact of the mass media, such as TV, movies, and video games, on consumers from a standpoint of their increasing complexity rather than their morality. ( )

This is one I'm glad I own b/c I'll probably want to reread it in the future. Good reference book for why I'll hold gaming programs in my library. ( )

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.

may want to read at a later date; doesn't hold my interest right now

After reading Everything is Miscellaneous, which convinced me that yes, more people are finding what they want on the internet, and understanding that my work as a reference librarian may soon be as desireable as that of a latin teacher, I now learn that I am missing out with my technically rationed lifestyle (no tv, video, no online gaming, occasional movies). Johnson makes a good argument that mass entertainment doesn't necessarily dumb down our culture, but can and has raised intelligence -- compare the plot lines Hill Street Blues with the Sopranos, Star Wars with Lord of the Rings, Bambi with Finding Nemo. Video and online gaming teach cognitive and problem solving skills. ( )

http://daveshearon.typepad.com/davesh... ( )

After hearing laments of "kids today" from practically everyone, this book was -- for me at least -- something of a revelation. Johnson does a great job debunking the myths surrounding television, movies, video games, and the like.

Many cultural critics compare today's popular culture with the classics and find contemporary culture sorely lacking. The problem with this is that it's not comparing apples to apples. Comparing Shakespeare to Halo 3 is hardly fair. Johnson instead compares our popular culture to the popular culture of the past. And this is his most telling point. Our kids consume some pretty sophisticated stuff.

When I compare "kids today" with kids of my generation, I'm pretty impressed with how kids are today and this book supplies some solid supporting evidence. ( )

I like the neuroscience behind this book. The idea that games are actually making society smarter means that I should look to create somewhat challenging (but fun) interfaces for my web applications.

Perhaps ironically, this book about how new media is not necessarily a "step-down" from old media (like books) has given me some insight into books:

*The argument that unstructured games give the player an opportunity to explore the virtual world reminds me alot of my 50-books-in-a-year quest. I've made my hobby of reading into a game that has just enough structure to make it feel rewarding.
*In the endnotes of the book, the author says that he's noticed more books that are bridging science and the humanities (Gladwell's books, the author's books). I think he's right, and I think that these are the books that I enjoy reading the most. ( )

The author has a very interesting premise-popular culture is making us smarter. Or rather, the best of pop culture is allowing our brains to develop more and varied synapses by making us draw connections, remember plot lines, and make inferences. I had a hard time getting into the book, but it was still informative and insightful. I found myself arguing with the author frequently. Unlike most times this happens, the author seemed to anticipate my arguments and did an excellent job of answering my arguments. An excellent read for those of us who are tired of hearing about how we're getting dumber-I wish more time was spent addressing how to bring this new way of thinking in line with old ways of thinking and teaching. However, it did little to answer my disdain over how everything has to be edutainment now, rather than actual learning. That, I suppose, is saved for another book. ( )

"Everything bad is good for you" - by Steven Johnson

Interesting book - it argues that, far from dumbing us down collectively, popular culture (games, TV drama, even reality TV) has become more complex, more challenging, and is probably responsible for what he calls the "Flynn" effect, that is the raising of the average in IQ across all demographics.

It really deserves to be read - the graphic illustration of the increasing complexity from Dragnet to Starsky&Hutch to Hill Street Blues to The Sopranos is worth the price of the book alone. Hey, anybody who goes on for so long about HSB and how revolutionary it is deserved to sell books.

Some of its arguments are - yes, playing online games is not like reading books, but this means that they two activities cannot really be compared: the cognitive stimulation of computer games is not in the plot or in the characterisation but in how it forces the player to be inventive in probing the game structure, and exercise and build up their problem-solving skills.

Fruition of popular content has gone from "lowest common denominator" being the winning selling strategy (ie when tv series were aired at one fixed slot and there were no repeats, on demands on vcr) to "depths of layers and addicted albeit smaller audiences" being the winning profit-making model - because content is repeatable, and you sell DVDs that people are induced to buy if the series withstands repeated viewings.

All very interesting and I highly reccomend it, with only two minor whines:

a. It's a slim book, and there is a lot of repetition. One thing probably has to do with the other. Especially at the beginning (before I started giving myself permission to skip) I found myself muttering, yes, yes, this is the THIRD TIME you're telling me this, what do you think I am, stupid? On the up side, it's a really easy and engaging read.

b. The thought kept going through my head: ok, if Americans are all getting collectively so much smarter, how come they keep voting for what is, to the eyes of any person with an ounce of brainpower, a brain-damaged control-freak incompetent?

I think the review on Pandagon of this book points out that there is very little discussion of how this raising of the IQ plays across class divisions; that might be a factor (not many X-box and cable subscriptions in the sticks, I suppose). Another might be that highly conservative demographics are not much in the markets either for World of Warcraft of the Sopranos, and indeed part of the homeschooling movement is aimed a preventing the "corrupting" influence of popular culture to reach the blessed minds of the little innocent dumb fucks.

Or maybe it's just a very fascinating theory that happens to be wrong. ( )

I was pleasantly surprised with the author's reasoning and parsing out of his thesis--that is that video games provide a kind of literacy that helps people in decision making. He doesn't call for the abolition of books, but rather says that reading formulates one kind of thinking and that is good. And that playing (some) video games also give the user strategies that is useful for life. I would recommend this book ( )

This book is a fascinating read on how pop culture - even shows like the Apprentice - are helping our culture. Some of the arguments were old news, but the book was well written and explained the points well. ( )

Book: Everything Bad Is Good for You

I’ve read some months ago Everything Bad Is Good for You by Steven Johnson, an American journalist and the founder of the outside.in portal. In this book, the author tries to prove that the all the media that usually have a bad reputation, when it comes ti their influence on society, really are improving our mind. Tv series, movies and even video games complexity seems to be increasing, specially when you look at the most popular shows/games.

Read the rest of the review at http://sergiosantos.info/2007/4/book-...

4.07

I read this book after reading a Slate article on the same subject by the author. Wish I had stuck to just the article - the book felt like mostly filler. ( )

An analysis of the ways in which popular culture is actully moving towards greater complexity and a higher lowest common denominator. Covers video games, TV (both drama and reality), movies, and the internet. Contrasts interestingly with Neal Stephenson's take on popular culture (morlocks who read and understand how things work vs. eloi who just steep in the culture). Interesting to me was the mention of the Flynn Effect (that unnormalized IQ score increase over time (I need to read more about this)) and its particularly large impact on the lower and middle groups in IQ testing and not so much on the IQ elites . Combine with a dash of Infotopia's (by Cass Sustein) view of the increasing use of products of many minds and you've got a surpisingly positive take on western culture. ( )

Good little book that I found myself agreeing with quite a lot. It also left me with an intense craving to play Tetris again. ( )

Breezy book making what essentially amounts to a three-point argument: that video games engage mental skills such as problem-solving and pattern recognition, that a lot of contemporary TV indulges in fairly complex narrative strategies, and that online discourse rewards writing skills and in-depth thinking. I'm pretty sympathetic to these arguments, so the book's conclusions felt a bit foregone to me, although certain examples felt freshly cogent (the diagrams of character networks in a show like 24, for instance). ( )

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. ( )

Interesting thought piece suggesting that video games, TV and other frequently demonized “junk media” is actually more beneficial than you might think. For example, video games force you to learn rules as you go (compared to, say, chess where you know all the rules in advance), while TV shows today are far more complicated than 30 years ago because they force you to follow multiple threads, a dozen characters and an ongoing story arc. Good ammo for the next time yr local politician goes on a censorship kick to “save the children”. ( )

http://wordblur.typepad.com/readers/2... ( )

Basically, take the title, remove the word "everything" and replace it with TV, movies, gaming, and the Internet, and you have the premise of the book. Also replace the phrase "good for you" with "makes you smarter." Johnson's basic premise (that he proves) is that today's media is more intellectually stimulating that the media in previous generations.

What he doesn't cover is if that more intellectual media is also more morally bankrupt. ( )