RJ
06-16-2005, 12:56 PM
Lock me if you've seen this before:
Reviewed by Katy Read
special to the [Mpls] Star Tribune
If only Steven Johnson had published his new book a year ago. That's about when I attended a party where the talk turned to videogames. Amid all the usual bashing- time wasting garbage, rotting kids' brains- I hesitantly floated my personal theory that video games might actually, well, um, sharpen some skills.
The partygoers fell silent. Everyone stared for a moment. Then, in unison, they unleashed what amounted to a resounding "Yeah, right."
I let it slide, not sure I even believed my own half-baked idea. But in his delightfully contrarian "Everything Bad is Good for You: How Today's Popular Culture Is Actaully Making Us Smarter", Johnson takes the notion & bakes it to a nice golden brown. Johnson insists that supposedly idiotic entertainmentforms such as TV & video games are, in fact, cause for & evidence of soaring intelligence. His arguments are so persuasive that if readers don't start nagging their kids to spend more time in front of the screen, they at least won't as easily dismiss these pastimes as intellectual black holes.
"The cultural race to the bottom is a myth; we do not live in a fallen state of cheap pleasures that pale beside the intellectual riches of yesterday," Johnson writes. "...All around us the world of mass entertainment grows more demanding & sophisticated, & our brains happily gravitate to that newfound complexity."
Take that, skeptical partygoers!
Had I been pressed to actually name some skill-sharpened by video games, I would have shrugged. Hand-eye coordination, maybe? Sure, replies Johnson, but that's like saying great novels can improve your spelling. More important, video games can provide a rigorous cognitive workout, as gamers grapple w/ step-by-step tasks, figuring out what to do as they go. "The ability to take in a complex system & learn its rules on the fly is a talent w/ great real-world applicability," Johnson writes. If you doubt this, you haven't heard my video-savvy 9-year old instruct me on how to operate my own cell phone & digital camera.
[edited for length & content]
Johnson doesn't fully alleviate all worries regarding games on TV. He shrugs off concerns about violent content rather breezily & ignores altogether the question of a link between sedentary entertainment & rising obesity. But it's hard not to be swayed when he hauls out his clincher: that American IQs have gone up in recent decades & that mass entertainment may deserve much of the credit.
Johnson, author of several books on science & technology (& who, in case you were wondering, does pay due tribute to the value of the written word), writes in the erudite but light-handed manner of Malcolm Gladwell ("The Tipping Point", "Blink".) He displays an easy familiarity w/ economics, neuroscience, sociology & the finer points of "Starsky & Hutch." Like his theoretical video game addicts, you'll probably learn something from reading his book, but you'll feel as if you're just having fun.
Everything Bad Is Good For You
By Steven Johnson
Publisher: Riverhead, 240 p, $23.95
Review: A compelling argument that modern entertainment media, particularly video games & TV, are not rotting our minds but actually are improving our brainpower. Readers might quibble w/ a few of Johnson's points, but overall the book is persuasive & engaging.
Reviewed by Katy Read
special to the [Mpls] Star Tribune
If only Steven Johnson had published his new book a year ago. That's about when I attended a party where the talk turned to videogames. Amid all the usual bashing- time wasting garbage, rotting kids' brains- I hesitantly floated my personal theory that video games might actually, well, um, sharpen some skills.
The partygoers fell silent. Everyone stared for a moment. Then, in unison, they unleashed what amounted to a resounding "Yeah, right."
I let it slide, not sure I even believed my own half-baked idea. But in his delightfully contrarian "Everything Bad is Good for You: How Today's Popular Culture Is Actaully Making Us Smarter", Johnson takes the notion & bakes it to a nice golden brown. Johnson insists that supposedly idiotic entertainmentforms such as TV & video games are, in fact, cause for & evidence of soaring intelligence. His arguments are so persuasive that if readers don't start nagging their kids to spend more time in front of the screen, they at least won't as easily dismiss these pastimes as intellectual black holes.
"The cultural race to the bottom is a myth; we do not live in a fallen state of cheap pleasures that pale beside the intellectual riches of yesterday," Johnson writes. "...All around us the world of mass entertainment grows more demanding & sophisticated, & our brains happily gravitate to that newfound complexity."
Take that, skeptical partygoers!
Had I been pressed to actually name some skill-sharpened by video games, I would have shrugged. Hand-eye coordination, maybe? Sure, replies Johnson, but that's like saying great novels can improve your spelling. More important, video games can provide a rigorous cognitive workout, as gamers grapple w/ step-by-step tasks, figuring out what to do as they go. "The ability to take in a complex system & learn its rules on the fly is a talent w/ great real-world applicability," Johnson writes. If you doubt this, you haven't heard my video-savvy 9-year old instruct me on how to operate my own cell phone & digital camera.
[edited for length & content]
Johnson doesn't fully alleviate all worries regarding games on TV. He shrugs off concerns about violent content rather breezily & ignores altogether the question of a link between sedentary entertainment & rising obesity. But it's hard not to be swayed when he hauls out his clincher: that American IQs have gone up in recent decades & that mass entertainment may deserve much of the credit.
Johnson, author of several books on science & technology (& who, in case you were wondering, does pay due tribute to the value of the written word), writes in the erudite but light-handed manner of Malcolm Gladwell ("The Tipping Point", "Blink".) He displays an easy familiarity w/ economics, neuroscience, sociology & the finer points of "Starsky & Hutch." Like his theoretical video game addicts, you'll probably learn something from reading his book, but you'll feel as if you're just having fun.
Everything Bad Is Good For You
By Steven Johnson
Publisher: Riverhead, 240 p, $23.95
Review: A compelling argument that modern entertainment media, particularly video games & TV, are not rotting our minds but actually are improving our brainpower. Readers might quibble w/ a few of Johnson's points, but overall the book is persuasive & engaging.