Steven Johnson, Everything Bad is Good
for You (New York: Riverhead Books, 2000).
sub title "How today's popular culture is actually making us
smarter." Reading level 10th grade.
Johnson proposes an interesting thesis that playing
computer games, watching TV, and other current activities are making us smarter
rather than less intelligent. To support this conclusion he notes changes in
intelligence tests, increased complexity with TV plots, and the complex social
mapping that is required by today's average U.S. citizen. Computer games such
as Zelda are touted as more complex than books since they require non-linear
discovery, multi-muscular and participatory actions, a probing scientific
methodology, and complex telescopic thinking to solve.
The book is easy to read and makes some worthwhile points.