Everything Bad is Good for You review

I thoroughly enjoyed Steven Berlin Johnson’s latest book, Everything Bad is Good for You: How today’s popular culture is actually making us smarter. It was a fast read (about a day and a half), but mostly because I was motivated. The basic premise is that popular culture, such as TV and video games, have drastically increased in complexity and as a result have helped us sharpen our brains. IQ scores have steadily increased which offers some support for the theory.

Johnson also includes several comparisons of media from yesteryear and today that show support for massive increases in complexity. A single episode of 24 is a byzantine mash of relationships that would give a healthy novel a run for its money.

The idea that mastering a video game like Grand Theft Auto can foster intellectual acumen isn’t terribly popular, but extremly interesting. Johnson notes that there are several types of intelligence, so say having increased exploration skills from video games won’t help you write a better paper. It will help you program your TV though, which is a skill that even many snobby english majors can’t perfrom.

Another point I enjoyed was that as a whole we are reading novels less, we are writing more. With the advent of email, IM and bulletin boards, the average person has many more options when it comes to writing. Being able to hold three IM sessions at the same time is a whole other matter, and surely a type of skill that previous generations lacked.

If you haven’t already, go buy this book. I have a feeling older readers will be more likely to object to the book’s main point ("I don’t care what he says, pop culture is taking us to hell!"), but it’s worth a read.

Next up on the reading is is either Freakonomics or The Selfish Gene. It’s a tossup.