Sexual Astrology - Books : Everything Bad Is Good for You: How Today's Popular Culture Is Actually Making Us Smarter

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by: Steven Johnson See Larger Image Used Price: $0.63 Collectible Price: $23.95 Third Party New Price: $4.69 Binding: Hardcover Dewey Decimal Number: 306.0973 EAN: 9781573223072 ISBN: 1573223077 Label: Riverhead Hardcover Manufacturer: Riverhead Hardcover Number Of Items: 1 Number Of Pages: 256 Publication Date: May 05, 2005 Publisher: Riverhead Hardcover Sales Rank: 226771 Studio: Riverhead Hardcover Related Items: What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy. Second Edition: Revised and Updated Edition Signs of Life in the USA: Readings on Popular Culture for Writers Emergence: The Connected Lives of Ants, Brains, Cities, and Software The Ghost Map: The Story of London's Most Terrifying Epidemic--and How It Changed Science, Cities, and the Modern World Mind Wide Open: Your Brain and the Neuroscience of Everyday Life see more Editorial Review: 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. 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 Customer Reviews Average Rating: Rating: - Well-Written and Entertaining but Not Convincing at all Steven Johnson's polemic can be read as a counter-argument to Neil Postman's influential classic "Amusing Ourselves to Death," and that's exactly what Mr. Johnson would like us to believe because he does mention Mr. Postman throughout his book and he takes as his foil the argument that mass entertainment is making us stupid, which is Mr. Postman's original thesis oversimplified. Mr. Johnson examines three main forms of popular culture -- videogames, television, and the Internet -- and ... Read More Rating: - Not bad, better than expected This books starts out on rather slippery footing, but gains a foothold in the subject quickly. Quite a bit of time is spent on the topics of modern television and video games, but that is perhaps because those two things occupy so much of our daily lives nowadays. Johnson raises several salient points. I'm not yet sure how much of it I agree with, as some of the generalizations don't fit in my own household. But all in all, an interesting read, and doesn't take very long to get through. ... Read More Rating: - 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 ... Read More Rating: - "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 ... Read More Rating: - 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. ... Read More see more Browse for similar items by category: Psychology - Social Sciences - New & Used Textbooks - Custom Stores - Specialty Stores - Books - General AAS Social Sciences - New & Used Textbooks - Custom Stores - Specialty Stores - Books - General AAS Communication & Journalism - New & Used Textbooks - Custom Stores - Specialty Stores - Books - Media Studies New & Used Textbooks - Custom Stores - Specialty Stores - Books - General AAS Qualifying Textbooks - Custom Stores - Specialty Stores - Books - General AAS