David JannaAP LANG. And COMP:

October 22/2011

Everything Bad is Good For YouSteven Johnson

Introduction EBIGFY

• The author demonstrates in the first two subsections how videogames and other modern 21st century innovations are actually making us smarter.

Good or Bad?

• He believes that social virtue of pop culture can be assessed differently, by looking at the media as a kind of cognitive workout, instead of a series of life lessons.

• Johnson mentions the The American Parents Television Council states that there are indeed more negative messages in today’s entertainment world. (This is not the only way to evaluate whether our television or video games are having a positive impact.)

Terminology

• Sleeper Curve:• From the Woody Allen film Sleeper, where "scientists from

2173 are astounded that twentieth-century society failed to grasp the nutritional merits of cream pies and hot fudge"

• Johnson uses this term to argue against the traditional perception of the deteriorating standards of pop culture.

Smarter?

• Television and video games are having a positive impact among people. The important part is to have the kind of thinking you have to develop to make sense of a cultural experience.

• Here is where the Sleeper Curve is applicable. • “Today’s popular culture may not be showing us the righteous

path. But it is making us smarter.” Pg. 14

What if:

• What if video games were invented and popularized before books?

• Kids would been playing video games for centuries, suddenly these page bound texts appear……

VS

VIDEO GAMES!

• Gameplaying engages kids in a vivid, three-dimensional world full of moving images and musical landscapes, navigated and controlled with complex muscular movements. Games engage the full range of the sensory and motor cortices.

…books

• Reading books chronically causes the under stimulation of the senses. Books are only a simple barren string of words on a page. Only a small portion of the brain is devoted to processing a written language. Books are isolating.

Conclusion

Johnson suggests that:• “While games have for many years engaged the

young in complex social relationships with their peers, building an exploring worlds together, books force the child to sequester him or herself in a quiet space, shut off from interaction with other children.” Pg. 19

Bibliography

• Everything Bad is Good For YouBy: Steven Johnson