PRODUCED BY: TERRENCE PEARSON

EVERYTHING BAD IS GOOD FOR YOU,

THE BOOK IS RED I WISH WAS BLUE,

BY STEVEN JOHNSON

MULTIPLE THREADING, FLASHING ARROWS, AND THE SLEEPER CURVE

JOHNSON: TELEVISIONS GOOD

ME: THEM ARE NOT MY WORDS

MY EXPERIENCE WITH JOHNSON

My expereince with johnson has been very interesting and eye opening. Johnson's book Everything Bad Is Good for You talks about television and how it is somewhat challenging. Johnson's arguement was centered around something call the sleeper curve. The sleeper curve states that televesion is more than just a media that people sit down and watch it has grown to be more complex and demanding. I happen to agree with Johnson's agrument about television because following the show The Hills made me interact more then usual. When watching The Hills I gave feedback, prediction, and also compared my similar problem to the charcters. Johnson also brings up something called multiple threading. Multiple threading is when a television epsiode contains more than one story plot. Johnson believes that multiple threading is improving are cognitive skills and this is making televison more educating to the viewers.

Terrence Pearson
Mr. Boczkowski
English 110.01
May 12, 2009
Is it Johnson’s way?

Media can be looked at in many different ways. Some people believe it hurts our society, while others believe that the media helps stimulate one’s thought process. Reading Everything Bad Is Good For You by Steven Johnson and keeping a weekly journal over the television show The Hills has helped me understand the two different viewpoints. The heart of Johnson’s argument revolves around something called the Sleeper Curve. Johnson stated that “the Sleeper Curve is 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, Everything Bad Is Good for You, page 39). After studying The Hills I can truly say that the sleeper curve is present. Johnson is stating that today’s media makes you work harder at making quick decisions but also educates one’s mind set. Today’s media educates people by providing visual examples of appealing facts about are society. There are television shows in the world that may not serve any purpose to your life; however, it may play a major part in someone else’s. For example someone who is interested in an earth program is more likely to watch the discovery channel than myself; I am an individual that watches ESPN and MTV. Keeping up with today’s media may seem worthless but it can truly be beneficial.

The Hills is a MTV reality program that follows the life of several young people living in Los Angeles, California. The show's current main cast member is Lauren Conrad of Laguna Beach. The Hills presents lots of drama between friends but it also haves its good side. Throughout the first couple of weeks of watching and analyzing this program, I was completely unintrigued. There were days when my mind would just wonder off while the show was playing because I lacked all interest in it. As time progressed, I found myself making predictions, gathering first impressions, and also making comparisons between the different characters’ lives. I finally began to interact with the show. I can actually say that my experience with The Hills supports Johnson’s Thesis.

Boobies of Mel Gibson

Steven Johnson didn’t waste time sharing “probing,” “flashing arrows,” and eye-opening summaries.
Steven Johnson’s eye-opening internet surfing abilities and probing helped Adam Sandler in Happy Gilmore in a hug fight.
Blockbuster’s films don’t have flashing arrows, Steven Johnson

Ps……It’s bad that the free Internet porn helps perverts addiction to MySpace.

Zander shumar, Tracy Wood, Brandon Ransom, Treg Smart

Sexual Intentions

Perverts blogging therapy porn movies kick-ass.

Expensive porn’s free

Luigi Sleeps on Boobies

Blockbuster eye-opening expensive porn entertains families

Luigi Googles Zelda’s boobies

...Shoot me

Composed by Morgan Freeman, Blaze Wright, Ethan Rideneaugh, Kasia Varsak

Johnson poem

The information pervert blogged, sharing boring free porn on MySpace, face book and you tube while the comedy craigslist play station was expensive the x- box was red while people surfed Google for the call of duty therapy produced by Mel Gibson directed by Steven Spielberg with a relaxing series of a HD entertainment on the idiot box with a “hug fight”. Steven Johnson and Steven Seagal while Adam Sandler sucked bobies.

Paige Byers, Haven Moore, Dorothy Vaughn

EBIGFY (Including S.G's Boobies)

In Steven Johnson’s Boring Book, Everything Bad Is Good For You,

Telescoping, Probing, Multi-Threading, And Flashing Arrows,

Help Characters Share Entertainment, Information, and Complexity,

But Schoolwork Sucks Steven Seagal’s Kickass Boobies.

Gracefully composed by....

Omar Mustafa

Kylor Roberts

Tyler Hamilton

Ryan Geiselman

Poem of johnson

A fun time with Johnson’s red book

Relaxing with reality and Johnson

Johnson’s eye opening complexity

And schoolwork of summarizing character webs

Jessy Allen, Liz Hamilton, Elena Laird, Shannon Miles

Requiem of a white board

Entertainment on on the idiot box
A horror of addicting graphics
Downloading information for free

Surfing porn with the Craigslist Killer
Statistics show it was boring
Perverts acting Lost

Probing proxies
Surfing people
Sharing wasted time

The red book was eyeopening.

Misty Farley, Michael Habak, Amanda Snider

Response to Johnson
Steve Johnson through out his book Everything Bad For You Is Good For You gives his well thought out opinion on how television, games, and the internet are complex and are helping us to think more. Johnson describes the SleeperCurve as challenging our minds rather than going for a cheap thrill. I do watch television alot and am on the internet alot, so I understand what Johnson is saying. Throughout Johnsons book there were some amazing points that I agree with, but there are some that I find I don't agree with.
I like watching television just as much as the next person, but I do believe if you sit on your couch and watch too much you will become a couch patato. While there are some complex television shows that sometimes you have to watch more than once to understand, I think there are more television show that are there to just catch the viewers attention and to get high ratings. The mulit threads or many plots in one episode, that Johnson describes do make television more complex.
Johnson tells how character mapping makes the show more complex and how television is steering away from flashing arrows. Character mapping is where you connect the different characters in the plot together and flashing arrows are signs that help you predict what will happen next. I can see where the Character mapping is making the show more complex.
Johnson tells how telescoping and probing help to make video games more complex and make you think. Probing is when you are just getting a game or start a new level, and you are trying to figure out your surroundings. While in a way you are trying to gain new knowledge, I don't find probing to really be making the video game more complex.
Johnson gives good points and I have read other reaadings that go against Johnson. Right now I am still not sure what to think if these mediums are making us smarter or not.

Call me crazy, but I believe it.

Shannon Mills

Mr. Boczskowski

English 110C01

8 June 2009

English Final

Steven Johnson, author of Everything Bad is Good for You, believes that today’s mediums such as; television, movies, internet, and video games are actually making us smarter. Johnson gives a theory he calls The Sleeper Curve, and talks about how each medium’s way of making us smarter. After reading Johnson’s book, I have come to the conclusion that I believe The Sleeper Curve is real but is something we actually don’t know is happening unless told so, like Johnson has.

Johnson talks about each mediums way of making us smarter. Video games are more complex then they have ever been. Coming up from a classic game like Pac-Man to a game like Call of Duty, you will realize the complexity of games today. Johnson metions two things that are making us smarter while playing video games, probing is when you first play a game and you are learning what each button does and what happens when you do certain things. Another thing he mentions is telescoping, telescoping is your goal as a whole, finding the rewards that give you the motivation to go and complete a hard level. “One of the best ways to grasp the congitive virtures of gameplaying is to ask committed players to descrive what’s going on in their heads halfway through a long virtual adventure like Zelda or Half Life” (Johnson, 47) People who are committed to playing games more often than none, have the experience and knowledge of video games, thus giving the player skills that he may not know he/she even has.

Television and movies have come a long way in today’s era. We now have more complex shows on television with shows like House. Johnson mentions multithreading, which is how many things are going on at once between different characters. If you watch a show from a later episode and then watch if from there on out, you could find yourself lost. Social networking is another example of television making us smarter. Social networking is relationships between characters. You need to know certain things to understand what is going on. Shows like House can have plenty of different relationships to understand.

Internet has become today’s biggest resource. There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t use the internet. You can find anything and do anyything on the internet. If you miss an episode of House, you can find your self on the internet looking up certain episodes and reviewing what happen or even watching it online. This keeps us caught up and gives us a chance to see our if we missed it.

I believe all of these mediums are actually making us smarter in one way or another. Johnson makes great points and are very believble. I think one reason I believe this theory of The Sleeper Curve is because I am growing up in an era of great technology, I don’t want to think that today’s mediums are making us dumb.

Eh Johnson

Over the last couple of months, three days of every week, I learned a little more about Johnsons’ Sleeper Curve. Johnsons book “Everything Bad is Good For You” circulates around the idea of Sleeper Curve, which he tells us is the growth of complexity in pop culture and increase of intelligence in the last thirty years. It is because of this increase of complexity and difficulty in comprehension of pop culture that makes us as viewers practice critical thinking almost constantly of every day, causing this wave of intelligence in our generation.

Though there are many ways to argue this, I have to agree with Johnson. One might say that pop culture has no effect on ones literary intelligence, but then again this generation is constantly on the computer reading and taking in information. We may not know while reading blog posts and articles we are learning good grammar and vocabulary but we are unconsciously.

Johnson hits on different forms of media such as video games, internet, television, and film. All of which in some form or another have been advanced and are causing us to think. Video games involve a lot more problem solving, while internet websites almost need to come with a hand book for those who are new to them. Television and film now have more than one story line or multiple plots. Things like this is what keeps us hooked on watching, if we were to present the more simple shows from forty years, ago no one be interested because the lack of thinking needed to watch it. People love to guess who the crazed psycho killer is in a horror film or who is going to end up with the girl in the end of a romance flick. These are now things that we strive for in our pop culture, being more involved.

Johnsons term Sleeper Curve, to me, stands. I don’t see anything wrong in his concepts or ties to pop culture. This unconscious way of learning can easily be proved the best. It’s easier to learn when you don’t know you’re learning. It is not pressured, but it’s there and easily accessible. I’m grateful for the knowledge that I’ve come to realize I am effortlessly taken in everyday through mass media. My eyes have been opened through his ideas and it’s awesome.

"Sleeper Curve," like a hibernating bear

In the book Everything Bad is Good for You, author Steven Johnson puts forth the argument that popular media, the so called evil in our society, is actually making us, the common viewers, smarter; thus in turn making sense out of the title of the book. He calls this trend “Sleeper Curve,” names it “after the classic sequence from Woody Allen’s mock sci-fi film, where a team of scientists… are astounded that failed to grasp the nutritional value of cream pies and hot fudge.” (Johnson xvi)

In the book Johnson puts forth several arguments supporting his “Sleeper Curve Theory.” He produces the ideas of “flashing arrows,” multiple threading and “repeatability.” Now he tells of how ”flashing arrows” are less common now days in movies because we have the capability of following complex story lines so we don’t need to have the obvious pointed out in big flashy ways. I full agree with him on this idea. In watching modern shows on TV the “flashing arrows” have gone out the window. The writers throw twists and turns at viewers faster than a pitcher can throw a base ball. The reason is because of our attention spans; if we watch shows that spell everything out for use we loose interest and then show looses viewers.

I agree with him on the other two arguing points as well. I think the complexity of the multiple threads ads interest to our minds. Also it’s a good stimulating mental work out; the process of trying to remember the complex story plots of shows, like soap operas, causes you to dig deep into your brain. Then repeatability this is the area I agree the most on with Johnson. He states, “already, any given episode of a successful television show will be seen by more people in syndication than it will during its first run on network TV.” (Johnson 160) Johnson is saying that more people go back and look at old TV shows not on primetime TV, but on DVDs or in reruns. He also explains that writers are adding in hidden secrets “that reward great scrutiny,” or in better words could use a couple of viewing to be seen and fully understood. (Johnson 160) This to me is totally true I can’t tell you how many times I’ve watch episodes of Futurama, Family Guy, and South Park. When I watch them I see something I never have seen before; like in a South Park episode every time they talk about a kid’s age they change it by a year, or how in Family Guy in one scene Peters head shrinks for no reason. This also causes you to use your noodle to do some intense studying or viewing of the episode in hopes of coming across a hidden treasure you’ve never seen.

So to me I think Johnson hits the nail on the head with his book. Now I might be a little bias because I am an avid television watcher, but to me I think we are expanding our knowledge in ways never before seen through the use and viewing of media. Were up to date on events, were always actively viewing the episodes in order to keep up with the happenings on the screen. Media has gotten so complex you have to have half a mind in order to stay in with the times.

Sleeper Curve( responds)

What do I think about Steven Johnson “Everything bad is good for you”, The Sleeper Curve. What I think is that the Sleeper Curve, it makes you think about what is truly going on in the world today. How this one guy say something that the rest of the world thinks different. What Johnson is saying that what the rest of the world might think is bad for us but it is also making us smarter. All the media that Johnson cites in the book “Everything bad is good for you” like television: “For someone loosely following the debates over the medium’s cultural impact, the idea that television is actually improving our minds will sound like apostasy” (Johnson 62). When I watch TV I actually feel that I am getting smarter because what I learn on TV helps me out in the real world. Some people might think that when young people watch TV is draining their brains but it is making them smarter. Johnson talks about other things in the Sleeper Curve; Games, Internet, Films and all these are somehow making today society smarter.
With all the media that Johnson mention in his book is just another way of making us smarter without having to go to school. What he talks about in his book is just another form of media to me because it is just teaching us something that the rest of the world would not have taught us. Johnson came all just in time for me to get this think about Twitter is making me smarter every time I get on there. But at the same time, every time I get in front of the computer screen on the internet just browsing is shrinking my brain.
Johnson states: “if the Sleeper Curve turns the conventional wisdom about mass culture on its head, it does something comparable to our own heads” (Johnson179-180). Okay what he means about this is that since we as a whole us the internet to do mostly are lives on what if I was not around what would we do without it. We would go back to using books back in the old days, and we would not have all these source as we have today to help us out with are daily life.

The Sleeper Curve is awake past it's bedtime

TV is making us smarter, so says Steven Johnson who lays down the foundations of proof for intelligent television in his book Everything Bad Is Good For You. Johnson is arguing that popular media such as videogames, television, and the internet are becoming more complex with time because as we watch and participate in these media we become smarter. Johnson thinks that watching television with complex intersecting plotlines and characters is teaching us to be better at reading emotional cues of our social groups in real life. He attributes the rise of IQ scores to problem solving skills needed to play videogames and multiple threading involved in television viewing. “Where pure problem solving is concerned, we’re getting smarter” (144).

So this is the landscape of the Sleeper Curve. Games that force us to probe and telescope. Television shows that require the mind to fill in the blanks, or exercise its emotional intelligence. Software that makes us sit forward, not lean back. But if the long term trend in pop culture is towards increased complexity, is there any evidence that our brains are reflecting that change? If mass media is supplying an increasingly rigorous mental workout, is there any empirical data that shows our cognitive muscles growing in response? In a word: yes (Johnson 136).

We are a nation of over stimulated people. Everywhere we go we are drowning in media. Johnson is saying that this media increasing in complexity using the concepts of multiple threading, probing, and telescoping to measure, and prove how smart we are becoming. He points to rising IQ scores and tries to draw a direct correlation between shows like the Sopranos and this increase in intelligence. What about the content of the internet and rising technology in the class room as a possible explanation for our Nations rising IQ scores. Also consider that illiteracy was common until the civil rights movement had a chance to function and ensure education for peoples of all colors and races. Testing is also becoming more common part of a child’s educational experience. Consider, funding for schools is often dependant on these scores so we are becoming more accustom to the process of testing as a whole and therefore more likes to do better than a different generation.

We are just bored and television is pushing the envelope to keep us from doing something drastic, like reading a book. And let’s face it that’s not where the money in today’s society is. There are no superstar authors selling diet coke during the super bowl. The Sleeper Curve overlooks major changes in our society and our culture. There are many issues and multifaceted opinions of each one floating around. Gay rights, abortion, war, economy. Google, Wikipedia, MySpace. Television and other forms of media are becoming more complex because we are, true. However Johnson is not seeing the big picture when he attempts to break down each form of media separately and point to cause and effect. Because of the 21^st century breakthrough in the easy access of information and ideas media complexity is no longer quantifiable. You really can Google anything and everything. Television, videogames, and other media must introduce us to new and twisted plots and content on a weekly basis. How else do you keep people stimulated who live the notion of instant knowledge within a dozen keystrokes?

Stating the Obvious- It's Not All Bad

It is a popular, to say in the least, belief that the media, in the forms of TV, video games and the internet, is slowly devouring our souls. We are supposedly becoming mindless zombies in the wake of the media’s destruction, slowly being victimized by Spongebob’s stupidity; all of us as members of a Hell that we are in control of.

However widespread this idea is, there are those that have risen against these beliefs. The sleeper curve is described by Steven Johnson, the author of Everything Bad Is Good For You, as being different mediums, like video games and television, that are actually healthy for the human brain to consume (Johnson 9). This sleeper curve idea holds true in many different cases. Recent television shows require much thinking on the viewer’s part.

Johnson mentions the show 24 as a good example of a show that is complicated enough that viewers must think twice about some things (Johnson 109). He uses 24 when he talks about social networks, also known as character mapping. Character mapping is how characters interact with each other, and who they interact with (Johnson 107). The character mapping of recent years, especially 24, is much more complicated than the maps of Dallas (Johnson 110). The constant interaction between characters forces viewers to think, putting characters together with other characters like pieces of a puzzle, and therefore stimulating our brains intellectually.

For video games, Johnson mentions probing; probing is when the person playing the game has to explore their environment, hoping to figure out what their next step is or a clue as what to do in the first place (Johnson 45). The steps for probing are probing, then the player making a hypothesis about what to do next; the player reprobes with the hypothesis, and then rethinks their original hypothesis (Johnson 45). This also causes the player’s brain to tick, having to figure things out on their own instead of the answers to their questions being handed to them on a silver platter. Johnson has taken the obvious and written it down in a book: ask any random person to play a level of Final Fantasy and then ask them if it was difficult. They will tell you yes, unless they are a genius. Any regular person would struggle with a level they have never seen before, especially if they have never interacted with a game like those from the Final Fantasy series. Games are difficult and do make us think.

Johnson has hypothesized that even though our culture has more than a daily doses’ worth of media on a regular basis, we are not losing intelligence because of that. Johnson has put into simple words what most people are slowly realizing: the media with interact with regularly has evolved into something much more difficult than what it was to begin with.

Johnson, Steven. Everything Bad Is Good For You. England: Penguin Books, 2006.

My Mama was Wrong!!!

As a kid the media was always enjoyed, I cannot think of one time that I was using some type of new technology and did not have fun with it; well maybe except from school. Though that idea was frowned upon by adults because they believe that these types of media were doing nothing for us and were not making us smarter, but simply a waste of time.

When I read Steven Johnson I first could not believe that someone was actually saying these types of things, sure a kid of course but one would expect this from them. Johnson’s book struck me at first glance as a bunch of myths because of what I have been taught as I grew up that. (the media well never help us because it does not challenge the mind. Johnson’s book is the complete opposite of that he argues that these things are actually making us smarter. His idea of the sleeper curve is that new technology as well the media are challenging our minds and improving our intelligence.

I myself enjoyed Johnson’s book the book. As I stated in class that I am not a big fan of reading so for me to read a book and actually enjoyed really shocked me. I believe that one real big reason why I enjoyed this book so much is because it has sooth a childhood myth that has really grinded my gears for so long. I think every child as they were growing up wants to believe that things such as the internet, television, and video games are going to help them become successful or happy as they get older, and Johnson helps us to believe that idea.

When I was reading Johnson’s book he introduces this new idea of electric speed (p 176) which basically states that we our intelligence of technology based on older technology. I feel this is the most influential part of the because I felt as if this part was written for me, because a lot of how I succeed in my everyday life now is by what happened in the past and learning from it and electric speed is the same way is no different.

Johnson’s book was interesting it help put a childhood pet peeve to rest. I did not expect to learn as much as I did from the book because of what I was taught as a child. Because of this book I wonder if my life would have been different if I had used technology as much as I wanted. So was my mom wrong for telling me to put down the remote and pick up a book.

FIFA 09: A Buffet of Awesomeness

I think that Steven Johnson is about 100% correct in his sleeper curve hypothesis. The sleeper curve is saying that as it may look as though today’s popular culture is making people dumber; it is in fact making people smarter. I think that people say this because people about 18 and under have become more secluded to the comfort of their homes instead of being outside playing. In today’s times, we are surrounded by technology 24/7 that helps us with just about everything. With this technology, more things are being available right in the comfort of our homes. The major contributors of this happening is watching television and playing video games. Watching television and movies may seem like forms of entertainment, but does actually educate the viewers without them know. With the extinction of flashing arrows and the increase in multiple threads, movies and television have become complex making the viewer think more and more. A perfect example of this would be the television show, Lost. Video games have had a big impact on today’s culture too. This was the biggest surprise for me. Video games have always been a big part of my life. I play for both entertainment and competitive playing for whenever I need to put some of my friends in their place. The game that I have been blessed with this past quarter was FIFA 09. Sports games may not seem like the perfect example of what Steven Johnson has to say, this game offers just about everything he talks about on a silver platter. It has good examples of probing and telescoping in it. FIFA 09 brings the player closer to the soccer field than ever before. The strategizing for each game is a great example of probing and winning “trophies” (Playstation’s form of achievements) is a great example of telescoping. Plus the other modes of playing, this game offers the player a buffet of playing soccer that not only entertains you, but also get your mind to think.

The Pieces of the Sleeper Curve

Steven Johnson believes that everything in that media such as, video games, television, film, and the internet, that we are taught that is bad for us, is actually making us smarter. He wrote a book called, “Everything Bad Is Good for You” that explains his theory on the fact that everything bad might really be good for you. He goes through each section and gives many examples for why each one is good for you rather than bad. He brings all of his examples to a thing called “The Sleeper Curve.”

His argument for video games versus reading a book is: “Reading books chronically inderstimulates the senses. Unlike the longstanding tradition of gameplaying-which engages the child in a vivid, three-dimensional world filled with moving images and musical soundscapes, navigated and controlled with complex muscular movements” (pg.19). Johnson goes on to talk about probing and telescoping and how each person playing the game has to figure out where to go, what to do, and what the next thing after that is to do.

Johnson says that in television and film, “popular television shows-and to a slightly lesser extent, popular films-have also increased the cognitive work they demand from their audience, exercising the mind in ways that would have been unheard of thirty years ago” (pg.62). Johnson goes on to talk about the reasons why for the newer shows being more complex; the use of multiple threading; where now the shows have so many different things going on in one episode; character maps and social networks; Johnson gives an example of, “Black Market Baby, the primary structure of the narrative is a double plot: the competition between the two brothers to have a baby and give the family patriarch a long-overdue grandchild” (pg.110). A lot of newer shows are now having so many more plots in just one episode. Also he gives the example of the disappearance of flashing arrows. Now, it is not easy for us to see what is coming next in the show or film.

Johnsons next “crucial piece in the puzzle of the Sleeper Curve” (pg.116) is the internet. He says, “Not just because the online world offers resources that help sustain more complex programming in other media, but because the process of acclimating to the new reality of networked communications has had a salutary effect on our minds” (pg.116).

The thought of someone finally telling people that video games, television, film, and the internet are actually making us smarter could definitely cause some dispute. Obviously being a teenager, where the internet and television is what I do in my spare time, I love to finally hear that it is actually making me smarter. I agree with what Johnson is saying. He is not meaning to say that reading isn’t making us smarter, but he is saying that all the other “pieces” are too. He says, “But I want to be clear about one thing: The Sleeper Curve does not mean that Survivor will someday be viewed as our Heart of Darkness, or Finding Nemo our Moby Dick. The conventional wisdom the Sleeper Curve undermines is not the premise that mass culture pales in comparison with High Art in its aesthetic and intellectual riches” (pg.132).

Everything Bad Really IS Good For You

Omar Mustafa

Mr. Boczkowski

English 110c01

June 8, 2009

Everything Bad Really Is Good For You

Throughout Steven Johnson’s masterfully written book, Everything Bad Is Good For You, he presents several arguments about television, the Internet, and video games that support the notion that all three are actually making us continually smarter. Although the popular modern belief is that pop culture is making us dumber, Johnson argues the opposite. I agree with Johnson in all aspects of his arguments that come together to form the overall notion of The Sleeper Curve.

Johnson describes The Sleeper Curve as “a kind of positive brainwashing: the popular media steadily, but almost imperceptibly, making our minds sharper, as we soak in entertainment usually dismissed as so much lowbrow fluff  (Johnson XVI).” In other words, the mediums of entertainment that are generally seen as negative to one’s development are actually making us better thinkers, and therefore making us smarter. Although the basic premise of The Sleeper Curve proves to be true, the three types of media are not supported by an equal amount of citation.

In video games, Johnson discusses notions to support The Sleeper Curve that include telescoping, probing, and a therapeutic reward system. Telescoping, which Johnson describes as the separation of objectives into a hierarchy of importance, constantly forces the individual to be prepared to receive new information and independently place them in a scale of importance. Probing, which Johnson describes as when the individual observes their current environment, creates a hypothesis, and tests the hypothesis, is forcing the individual to constantly be thinking and improving their knowledge base based on the changing video game. Finally, the therapeutic reward system of video games is pointed out to release endorphins in the brain that allow for people to feel a sense of happiness and accomplishment. These three prongs that make up Johnson’s Sleeper Curve argument have been cited more than enough to prove its truth in video games.

Television also proves to be proficiently cited in Johnson’s Sleeper Curve argument. Johnson presents the notions of multi-threading and flashing arrows and how these are constantly making people smarter. Multi-threading, as Johnson describes, is when there are multiple storylines being carried out and executed simultaneously. This forces the individual to keep in mind that there are different characters, settings, and scenarios all being put into multiple different storylines at the same time. Johnson describes flashing arrows, as hints in a television show as referring to another point or topic subtly. These lead the viewer into making connections that may usually be difficult to view. This forces the viewer to be constantly aware of small subtle hints that may be invisible to the naked eye. Television is property cited by Johnson to be argued as beneficial to our thinking and intellect.

Although the Internet is proven by Johnson to fit into The Sleeper Curve, it lacks the proficient amount of citation that both video games and television posses. Johnson argues that the Internet has proven to be beneficial to us as times pass because of the sharing of the mass amount of knowledge and writing so easily available. Although this is proven to be true because you can find books, magazines, maps, or any other written word online, the Internet lacks multiple support examples from Johnson. He seems to stop abruptly when arguing that the Internet is making us smarter as opposed to how much citation video games and television had.

Steven Johnson’s argument of The Sleeper Curve has proven to be true in all three medias. Although each one may not be cited by an equal amount of examples and thought, they have all been first hand experienced to be beneficial to me. Johnson’s argument that the three medias of the Internet, video games, and television is making pop culture continually more intelligent and smarter has enlightened me to understand specifically how each one of these can be most efficiently beneficial to the individual.

Works Cited

Johnson, Steven. “Everything Bad Is Good For You: How Today’s Popular Culture is Actually

Making Us Smarter.” New York: The Berkley Publishing Group, 2005, 2005. Foreword.

Improving the Media and Mind

Media has a way of making your mind think, and a way of making you involve your mind in new behaviors. In Everything Bad Is Good for You, by Steven Johnson, he explains “The Sleeper Curve is the single most important new force altering the mental development of young people today” (12). I do believe that his theory of the Sleeper Curve has a lot of true information. As you engage in different media you learn and absorb all sorts of information. If you engage in anything to long, for example watching television for hours at a time, there’re has to be some things that are not good for you.

Many of the theories that Johnson uses to show us how media makes us think, proves themselves as you engage in watching a show or playing a game. For English class we had to watch a serious, and see if it would prove or disprove Johnson’s theory of the Sleeper Curve. I choose to watch the show Weeds that came on Showtime, and it did go both ways to prove and disprove his theory. Some of the things in the show were really predictable. Just watching and knowing in your mind what was going to happen, made the show not as interesting. It did not let your mind work as much as Johnson thought the shows needed too. Although Johnson believes “flashing arrows reduce the amount of analytic work you need to make sense of a story.” (74) I could not catch the flashing arrows in the show to make it that predictable, but however I could guess on what was going to happen a lot.

Even when you think about all the other types of media besides television, they make your mind think about all sorts of stuff. When you learn to get on the internet or just how to get around on the computer your mind develops a whole bunch of new task. You have to know what you’re doing, in order to get something done. Johnson explains, “The process of acclimating to the new reality of networked communications has had a salutary effect on our minds” (116). Even video games you have to learn to complete challenges, and even how to set the whole thing up.

So the sleeper curve does make your mind work and wonder. There still has to be other factors that contribute to what makes us smarter. He barley talks about the school or how much people are starting to improve in teaching. Then a lot of other things probably work their ways into your mind, but his theory does hold true for most of the things. It does have to make you think a little bit more than people think it does. Media should be looked at a little more closely, to see how smart it does make people on an individual not, because media does keep improving.


Johnson, Steven. Everything Bad Is Good For You. New York: Riverhead Books, 2005.

WaTcHiNg T.V. IsN'T JuSt wAtChIng T.v. (AnYmoRE)

In the book that Steven Johnson wrote he was very up front about the television topic. “While others just let you settle into the couch and zone out.” (63). I think of this as two ways. First, way is that Johnson is saying that people that watch television are couch potatoes, which goes back to saying he is very forward. Second, is that he is saying that television has become more laid back. That television is not complex it requires not thinking on the humans behalf you get all your knowledge from watching the characters.

 In the first part of the book Johnson has a theory, the Sleeper Curve, which suggests that the most debased forms of mass diversion video games and violent television dramas turn out to be nutritional after all. Johnson talks about how television has changed over time. Which, overtime I do believe that is true, why television has nutritional value is because television has become more complex in the past several years. The biggest theory Johnson has is the Sleeper Curve, but he has two other theories’ that I think are help the Sleeper Curve.

  First, thing that Johnson talks about is multiple threading, which is when a television show (movies) has a main plot then they also have side plots going on at the same time. “According to television lore, the age of multiple threads began with the arrival of Hill Street Blues in 1981” (63). This is when television became more complex and had many more threads to follow. The threads made people want to watch more and more of the episodes because I think it made you want to become one with the character because now they are bring up personal issues in television shows. I watched a show The Closer and it was very interesting after reading Johnson’s theory on television I started comparing what he said to what my show was going through.

 Secondly, Johnson talks about flashing arrows, which is when you suspense is built up at a certain part of time during the movie, by music or maybe the suspense of knowing what is going to happen. Johnson mentions that this type of cognitive work is preventing people from getting smarter. It does not have you fill in information that television shows give you when you watch them. In my show that I was watching and comparing I wasn’t noticing any of these flashing arrows maybe because it’s a cop show and who knows. (Interesting)

 Finally, Johnson has a unique way of thinking. To come up with theory’s like what he does is fascinating to me.  One thing that I would like to have seen more would be more research done that Johnson would have put in the book, other than that I liked the book. I would suggest to read this book it has good ideas in the book, which make you think..

The Sleepr Curve/ Too Good to be True

The book Everything Bad is Good for You written by Steven Johnson really opened my eyes to how media today could actually be helping us. I never thought about TV or the internet making me smarter. Who new sitting down in front of a TV and playing a video game might actually be helping me. I have always felt that children that are sheltered and do not watch TV are actually a little weird or left out. I agree one hundred percent that media and today’s pop culture is making us smarter.

The shows on TV now are becoming so much more complex and intricate. Before I read this book, I never thought about multithreading or flashing arrows. Johnson says that the intricate strylines in shows like 24 are making us think more. I wish the rest of the public would read this book, and realize what I have over the past 9 weeks.

The way Johnson explains this Sleeper Curve is so convincing. After reading this book, I couldn’t agree with him anymore. When I grew up, I was raised thinking that video games and the internet were bad and that I should be outside playing. I have always thought about in the back of my head, why is it bad? After reading this book, I could explain to anyone why TV and video games is actually helping them and their children.

The Postive Side of American Pop-Culture

I must admit I somewhat agree with Steven Johnson in regards to his idea of The Sleeper Curve. At first, I really didn’t understand how media could possibly affect anyone’s brain positively. Television shows, and other forms of media, enhancing our mental capabilities seemed a little far-fetched, but after careful thought it seems to make more sense.

Johnson breaks down each form of media by way of theories. When looking at video games or the internet, for example, Johnson discusses Probing which is basically the idea of figuring out how a game works by testing it out for yourself rather than using a Manuel. This idea of Johnson’s is strong and demonstrating learning by doing. When something positive happens for us when playing a video game endorphins our released in our brains. With television, Johnson discusses mutli-threading and social networks which, according to Johnson, are mentally stimulating. Following intense and confusing story lines cause neurons in our brains to fire.

There are other ways we learn by way of the media that Johnson did not explain. I believe we become culturally intelligent. This is probably the more obvious example of how media affects us positively. When watching a show about therapy, the viewer is able to see and experience something one might never have before. When watching reality shows like True Life viewers are again able to take a walk in someone else’s shoes and become more open minded about the people around them. By watching T.V., reading blogs, or watching films we are able to learn about American culture, other cultures, and obtain a better understanding of our fellow man that we may have never had before.

I believe Johnson’s definition of learning is much narrowed. It completely differs from mine and that is probably why I failed to understand the Sleeper Curve at first. Learning isn’t always neurological, or so black and white. There’s many things to learn from the media that aren’t so technical. The Sleeper Curve in media may stimulate our brains the same way a puzzle would but it also stimulates our brains the way a book would. It stimulates as it teaches.

A Simple Student With A Simple Responding To Johnson

After reading Steven Johnson book, Everything Bad Is Good For You, I have developed my own opinion on the Sleeper Curve. I use to believe that television was bad for people and didn’t help on IQ level. I only believed this because this is what I was always told by my parents, grandparents, teachers and more. They told me if I spent as much time reading as I did watching television then I would have a better understanding of things.

After reading Everything Good is Bad Is Good For You I have a new found understanding on pop culture and what it does for us. In Johnsons book he states that, “I believe that the Sleeper Curve is the single most important new force altering the mental development of young people today, and I believe it is largely a force for good: enhancing our cognitive faculties, not dumbing them down.” I believe that Johnson has a point here because there is so much more involved in media today that society doesn’t think about now.

Flashing Arrows for one is a biggest transformation in television. Johnson states that, “flashing arrow that gives the audience precisely the information they need to know in order to make sense of the ensuing plot.”He thinks that flashing arrows are not good because it don’t leave the viewer guessing and try to put the plot together themselves. The less flashing arrows the better! I think Johnson is right because this makes us think more on what is going on and try to make sense of things. Because of this we are thinking more than we use to and it isn’t dumbing us down. Since pop culture has grown so tremendously in the last thirty years it has became better for us to come in contact with.

Our parents and grandparents didn’t have that growing up so that why they think that way but the truth of the matter is it’s not bad for us it actually helps us. I can do things on the computer and video games that they could never do as they can do things that I couldn’t do. So were in different generations. I think if they read this book their opinions would change as well. Or at least see it a little differently.

My Inner Thoughts

A Thought on Steven Johnson
I must admit that I’m a little disappointed because I feel like Steven Johnsons book Everything Good is Bad for You is well written, but it still lacks some key points. First when I was writing my essay I noticed he said nothing about anime, this made it kind of difficult to go with or against his Sleeper Curve in my paper . I feel like he should address this in future writings, it could be a whole new playing field.

Then I have to say that, from my personal experience, people also learn from their feelings as they watch a show. Have you ever watched something and it made you feel bad? You learn from the feelings you have and if they are bad, you avoid them and vice versa. I liked that he mentioned his own past experience with his baseball game. He talked about how he got so into it and so he as Johnson calls it, “probed” more into the game which caused this new form of learning. I agree to this thought and I know that if anyone is into something enough, they will learn from it because they will be constantly trying to find out more about it.

Yes I agree

Response to Johnson
In Steven Johnsons book Everything Bad Is Good For You. argues that we are in fact in some way getting smarter by watching television. He tells us that the popular media steadily, but almost imperceptibly, making our minds sharper. Which Johnson calls the Sleeper Curve.

To me I really agree with what Johnson is saying about how the Sleeper Curve is in fact making us smarter. He gives us great details in his book that made me agree with him. Like when he tells us that people’s IQ’s are going up. Also that the test makers keep making the average score to be one-hundred. There is also the part in his book when he talks about the multi-threading. To me this is a big reason on why we are in a since getting smart. This is because with these multi-threading, which are extra storylines in an episode, people are having to think a whole lot more. This is because in the first ten minutes you may be watching one thing and then it turns over to another. This keeps happening through the whole show. So like Johnson says “people did not like it.” You see we now have to think more when we watch these shows. Which every show has now, unlike back when people like one threaded shows, Like Starsky and Hutch. The other thing that really made me believe him was the social networking. That is something you really have to think about. Which in Johnsons words are that” social networking is the connection of all characters in the show. With some of these new shows you are getting like ten main characters in a show. So that really makes you think about who is connected to who and how.

So that is why I believe that Johnson is right in saying that television has in a way made smarter. From the facts about the multi-threading to the social networking and how peoples IQ’s have grow over the years.

Johnson Has a Point

Steven Johnson provides a unique look at the media. He addresses it as a good and positive thing, rather than a way to make us lazy. His sleeper curve is very interesting and at first, I thought that he was crazy and wrong for taking this side. However, after reading his book, Everything Bad Is Good For You, I think that his argument for his sleeper curve is true and is correct in many ways.

Steven Johnson addresses all type of media, internet, television, videogames and film. He says of the older television shows, “The earlier shows follow one or two characters, adhere to a single dominant plot and reach a decisive conclusion at the end of the episode.” (Johnson 66) He is speaking of the popular television shows Starsky and Hutch and Dragnet. These shows were not very complicated and did not require too much thought. The shows today he says “…many popular television dramas today feature dense webs of relationships…” (Johnson 109) when talking about his character webs. Now today, most all television shows and even movies, have all the characters connected in some way and these “Character Webs” are very intense and confusing. Also, the many “Multithreads” in shows make the viewer think and pay attention. These two aspects show how different today’s shows are. I agree they make us think in different ways and use our brains differently than in the past.

I would agree that these shows and the new aspects of media make us think and help our intelligence. However, I do not feel that this is the sole reason why people are intelligent. There are other ways of gaining intelligence like going to school or even reading a book. The media I think has enhanced our intelligence in new ways, but I do not think it makes a huge difference either way. If you watch television or play videogames that does not mean you are smarter than somebody who does not. And if you read books, that does not mean you are smarter than somebody who does not read. The media helps us in many ways, but it is not the sole reason why someone is considered “smart” or “dumb.”

Johnson Response

Response to Johnson

Steven Johnson’s book, Everything Bad is Good for You, is all about the benefits that pop culture has on us as a society. He says that all of the television shows and video games and internet sites that we rely on for entertainment are making us smarter by forcing our brains to work harder. He calls this effect “the sleeper curve” and elaborates on the topic using many examples of such shows and video games. Having personally just read Johnson’s book, I can honestly say that I agree with what he is saying, but this is a subject that could be discussed endlessly, and that there are a lot of other ways that it could be viewed.

I agree that there is a certain level of learning that is a benefit of pop culture. I think that the increasing complexity of television shows and video games that are available today are contributing to our intelligences. An argument that I have come across is that pop culture is teaching us to be smart only in one way, and not in the traditional sense like school. It isn’t teaching us to be better at math or reading or writing, its teaching us to be better at thinking. At the same time, I don’t think that Johnson would argue this. He doesn’t seem to be stating that pop culture is making us better at things like this, at least not directly. Johnson might say that what we are learning from pop culture is indirectly enabling us to do better at these more basic intelligences, and with that I completely agree.

All in all, I really enjoyed Johnson’s book. I had always disagreed with all the constant negativity towards television and video games that we see on, ironically, the news, which tells viewers that video games cause kids to commit murders and is the cause of an obesity problem. To hear someone voice their opinion on this subject and do so in a well organized and well researched way makes a very convincing argument, and a great read.

What is Learning?

Steven Johnson defies many critics in his book, Everything Bad Is Good For You, by submitting the idea that today’s media is making us a smarter generation (Johnson 4). Johnson coins the term the Sleeper Curve, meaning just that. Johnson argues media, such as video games, television, film, and the Internet; build our cognitive skills as we interact with them (Johnson 7-10). He does acknowledge the other skills we acquire from reading, however does not delve into them. Readers must keep in mind that, even though, Johnson’s book is based on media making us more intelligent (Johnson 4), these are not the only things challenging our intellect. Dana Stevens, a writer for Slate, an Internet blog, says, “As long as Johnson defines intelligence strictly in quantitative cog-sci terms ("attention, patience, retention, the parsing of narrative threads," etc.), his case may seem solid…but does that make us any smarter? (Stevens) She criticize Johnson in her writing by making the assumption that Johnson’s argument is seemingly solely based on the ideas he presents, are impacting how we think. I’ve only read, Everything Bad is Good For You, by Steven Johnson, but it sounds like he is pretty intelligent, he knows that these characteristics alone will not make us a smarter generation, however, over the past decades media has presented its viewers with more complexity then ever (Johnson 17), and in return giving our brain a work out. For me, Johnson has brought new ideas to the table, about how we interact with media in today’s culture. After bringing his ideas into media one can see that, Johnson’s idea do appear in different types of media. 

In Absence of Content

Steven Johnson, author of the National Bestseller Everything Bad is Good for You, believes that the world of media i.e. games; video, television, and the internet are intellectually stimulating. While Johnson’s Sleeper Curve ideas are all around us and in most forms of media showing us that there is more to a particular medium than what meets the eye, but is Johnson only concentrating on these forms media. Video games, television shows, movies, and even the internet all show signs of intellectually activity just underneath the surface, and Johnson explains how these forms of media are good for us and actually help us out by increasing our brain's activity.

While most of the above is hard to argue, I must bring up the point that Johnson is not basing all of his findings on the particular content of a media. Just as a book can bring fourth the same message as a movie can. For me it is all about the content of a media no mater form it comes in. When we do not focus on the content of the message then we will portray the wrong meaning.

Study of One Tree Hill

One Tree Hill is a really great example about what Steven Johnson says about what is going on with television. This show shows everything that Johnson has talked about in his book Everything Bad is Good For You. You see One Tree Hill is a great example of all the things that he talks about in his book. From the multi-threading to the flashing arrows and finally to the social networking. This show has the multi-threading and the social networking. It also shows that there are no flashing arrows. That is why this show is such a great show to do for this essay. The thing though is that not everyone believes that television is really a good thing for us. Other people think that television has made us in since dumber. Then of course other would agree with what Johnson say about television.

I should explain what I’m talking about when I talked about multi-threading, social networking, and flashing arrows. These three things are part of what Johnson calls the sleeper curve. Which the sleeper curve is the things that have helped change television to what it is today. You see television has really come along way since it first started. That is really all of what the sleeper curve is.

To make things clear on why One Tree Hill is a good choice for this paper I need to summarize the show. To start of the show is about two brothers, Lucas and Nathan, that don’t get along with each other at all. You see the two brothers have the same dad but different moms. You see Nathan is the star of their schools basketball team. He is also dating one of the head cheerleader, Peyton. Then there is Lucas who is just a regular guy who plays basketball on a riverside court. As it turns out things change and Nathans couch wants him to join the team. In the end Lucas does end up joining the team. While on the team Nathan and the other players Haze Lucas really bad. Besides the basketball there is a lot of mixed up emotions going on. You see Lucas starts to like Peyton who is going out with Lucas. Peyton’s friend Brook likes Lucas, but he really doesn’t like her. Then we start to see that Nathan really like Haley, Lucas’s best friend, when he is single. After awhile things start to cool down between the two. Not just because Haley asked Nathan to. Things cooled down because of some of the things that the two had to go through with each other. Like getting away from three guys from the basketball team they just played. That is what this show has been about.

Multi-threading is when there is more then one story line going on in an episode. You see Johnson says that “multiple threading is the most acclaimed structural convention of modern television programming, which is ironic because it’s also the convention with the most debased pedigree” (65). With that statement I would have to agree with it all the way. Now a days if a show does not have these multi-threads the show just seems boring. If you would talk to anyone they would say the same thing. Multi-threading just makes the show a whole lot of fun to watch. From what I have read when this first came out people did not like it because it made them try to keep up with everything going on, which I understand why they would think that way. Back then when people watched television they liked it to be nice and simple. Sometimes it can be hard to keep up with all the storylines in the show. From what has been said it is easy to say that multi-threading does fit with One Tree Hill. This show has these multi-threading in every episode. An example of this would have to be in episode 6 called “Every Night Is Another Story”. This episode has two nice story lines in it. The first one would have to be the fact that Lucas and Nathan have to work together to get out of jam with three rival basketball players, that they just beat. The other story line is that we se see Haley, Peyton, and Brook to kind of start to get close.
Now flashing arrows are things in a show or a movie that might give off what may happen soon. Johnson gives an example of what a flashing arrow looks like. He gives us a example from a show called Student Bodies. He gives the example of when the camera zooms in on a door then backs up and then it says “Door Unlocked!” You see Johnson says that “flashing arrows is a parody, of course, but it’s merely an exaggerated version of a device popular stories use all the time (73). Which there are no flashing arrows in the show One Tree Hill.

There is one more thing I read about in Johnsons book Everything Bad Is Good For You. The last thing that I read is about character web. You see Johnson says that “ The trend toward increased social networking complexity is not the exclusive province of reality of television; many popular television dramas today feature dense webs of relationships that require focus and scrutiny on the part of the viewer just to figure out what’s happening on the screen” (109). In this show there is a nice sized character web of all of the characters. That is why this show fits in with Johnsons idea. Here is the character web for One Tree Hill.



These are the examples from the show One Tree Hill. Also to show who is connected to each other in the show. As you can see it is a very complex web. Everyone is connected to each other in one way or another. It gets hard sometimes to keep up with all the connections sometimes. I think that is why this show is so great to watch.

Now for me I do agree that television has helped make us smarter. They’re people out there though that think that television has made us in a since dumber. In the article Spudding Out, by Barbara Ehrenreich she believes that television is bad for us. It is like she is saying T.V. has taken over our lives of people. I came to this conclusion because Ehrenreich stats that “ We never see the neighbors anymore, nor, they us. This saddens me because Americans used to be a great and restless people, fond of the outdoors in all of its manifestation, from Disney World to miniature golf “ (147). Now One Tree Hill fits in here because this show is one of the reasons why so many people are staying inside to watch television. All in all I would have to disagree with her about television making us dumber. On the other hand there is another person that agrees with Johnson. Paul Adams agrees with Johnson by say that “ watching television is the greatest single use of “ free time” (time not spent working, sleeping or attending to household or personal needs)” (118). For the same reason as the one, it fits One Tree Hill. because it is a show that people watch on their “free time”. Thomas C. O’Guinn says that “television has supplanted reading and interpersonal narrative as our primary means of storytelling and myth delivery and has thus fundamentally changed our culture” (278). What he is saying is that we get are information from T.V. more now instead of reading books.

In conclusion you can see that different people have different ideas about what television has done for use. No matter what way you believe the show One Tree Hill is a show that can connect with each opinion someone may have. Then that I think that television does help us .



Adams, Paul C. Television as Gathering Place. Vol. 82. N.p.: Tyler & Friends,Ltd, n.d. JSTOR. Ithaka Harbors,Inc. Web. 27 May 2009. http://www.jstor.org/action/showAdvancedSearch.
Ehrenreich, Barbara. "Spudding OUt." The Cultural Influences of Television (n.d.): 147-48. Print.
Johnson, Steven. Everything Bad IS Good For You. New York: The Berkley Group, 2005. Print.
O'Guinn, Thomas C., and L.J. Shrum. The Role of Television in the Constuction of Consumer Reality. Vol. 23. Chicago: The University of Chicago, 1997. JSTOR. Ithaka Harbors, Inc. Web. 27 May 2009. http://www.jstor.org

Leverage ( Great for Entertainment, Bad for the Sleeper Curve)

Leverage is a show of comedy, suspense, drama, romance, sarcasm, tactics and wit. The show provides entertainment to a more mature crowd because of some of the content within the show. However, all around the show I feel is great and entertaining, because you can just watch it and not have a care in the world. Leverage does at a lot of things as far as media is concern, but the idea behind the concept of the show does not support Johnson’s argument of the Sleeper Curve.

The show that I am following is no doubt a very ingenious show, because it supports the idea that in order to do good one must do bad. However it does not challenge the mind, and go along with Johnson's idea of the Sleeper Curve. In this show it is more of a how we do what is done opposed to the typical show where one is trying to figure out the motive of a person. There is no typical “whodunit” it, or mystery or suspense that has you thinking each turns of the movie and just when you think that you have figured it out there is a twist to it. The show is pretty much based the same way each time something is stolen or lost and it is up to this team to go in and retrieve it.

Leverage is the modern day version of the show the A-team, it is based on an ex-insurance investigator named Nathan, who is wrongfully done by his insurance company (that he works for), when his dying son needs surgery, but the same company refuses to provide coverage for it. Nathan soon leaves the company to; and is connected and leads a team of vigilantes, doing good deeds for people all across the world, after the government refuses to help them. The motto of the team is they provide, leverage (a push to get over the top) when no one else is there to help to them. What makes this show interesting is that each one of the characters has a different trait to add to the benefit of the team. You have: Elliot which is the muscles of the team, Parker is the sneaky one, she can get in and out of an environment without no one even knowing, Hardison the computer whiz if it has a something to do with computers he can work with it, Sophie is the actor she poses as the undercover person to infiltrate what it is they need to, and last is Nathan he the brains behind the operation he provides the plan for the teams so mission to go as smooth as possible.

Johnson's’ idea of the Sleeper Curve is that the media as well as technology is actually making us smarter opposed to the present day stereotype: That the media and technology is hindering us from fulfilling our full potential as well as making us dumber, because the things that we are doing are taking little if no energy at all. Johnson's argument that today’s pop culture is making us smarter, I feel is indeed correct, but I feel that in order for that statement to be true the mind has to be challenged to new heights and that is what today’s pop culture is doing. Over time popular culture has made a tremendous transition it went from the media being a useless waste of time to becoming a new era of learning. Technology is the founding father of that idea; things that we use in our everyday life such as: television, video games, the internet, cell phones, etc. are shaping our minds into becoming a more influential and smarter society. This idea is the “Sleeper Curve”.

Leverage does take technology to new heights, because of the types of equipment that the characters use to help them succeed, but it does not support the argument of the Sleeper Curve, because the idea behind the show is not challenging. The basis of the show is someone usually of a richer background comes to the leverage team with a substantial amount of money in exchange for a retrieval of something very valuable to that person. There it is, you know exactly who took whatever it is that needs to get back, and you also know there motive for taking it (usually for money or some other type of personal gain). After those things are spoon fed to you the only thing to do, is just to watch the show and see exactly how the tactics that they use to get back whatever it is they need to. The show is very entertaining and it shines light to these actions, but unfortunately it does completely oppose the idea of the sleeper curve. Leverage is more of modern genre of shows that were set back in the fifties, where no one wanted a challenge when watching television they just wanted to be lazy and watch something on television.

Although Leverage is not the typical Law and Order, or C.S.I type of show that absolutely supports the Sleeper Curve it does support Johnson in other manners. In the book Everything Bad is Good for You, Johnson mention phrases in that exist in modern pop culture he mentions Multi-threading, and Flashing Arrows as well as character mapping. These ideas go into Johnson's argument of the sleeper curve.

Johnson talks about Multi-threading- a series of stories going on inside of the big story itself. Leverage provides a lot of these in throughout the episodes. One complex things about multi-threading is that it can go on during at the same episodes through the same scenes even at the same time and they can continue over a period of episodes; this usually leads to joke or inside humor in a later show. Johnson argues that multi-threading is “the most acclaimed structural convention of modern television programming”. According to Johnson multi-threading started with the show Hill Street Blues, 1981 and has increased over time to a multiple story plotline show such as The Sopranos. Although this show has multiple threads, one might argue that it does support Johnson’s argument; I however do not feel that way because the idea behind Johnson’s argument is that these ideas challenge our mind but in my opinion this rule causes for an exception.

Flashing Arrows are another thing that Johnson brings up in the book. A flashing arrow is a symbol that alerts us when something bad or very dramatic is about to happen, this idea helps shape the Sleeper Curve because the fewer flashing arrows the better because in a sense they help us think about what could possibly happen next. Leverage fails to make these apart of the show because of the story plot line. The Flashing Arrows are very subtle and one usually could not notice them. This makes it hard for one to put together the fact something is about to happen.

Even though my show does provides one these two huge components of Johnsons’ argument I feel it is still none the less not a very good argument of the Sleeper Curve. My show supports modern society ideas that television just makes us lazy because there is no thinking or effort in to watching someone do something and all you have to do is stand there and watch.

I do agree with the whole idea of the Sleeper Curve but not with the idea that Leverage supports it. The show is fun to watch at the times of being lazy or not feeling up to the idea of putting your mind to use, but what does that get us? Johnson's argument is not to get us to use more media but simply justify the fact that a lot of present day pop culture media is making is improving our intelligence, but as far as supporting Johnson’s argument unfortunately my show does not.

The Inner Message

Steven Johnson, author of the National Bestseller Everything Bad is Good for You, believes that the world of media is intellectually stimulating. Johnson’s Sleeper Curve ideas are all around us and in all forms of media showing us that there is more to a particular medium than what meets the eye. Video games, television shows, movies, and even the internet all show signs of intellectually activity just underneath the surface. Johnson explains how the forms of media are good for us and actually help us out by increasing our brain's activity.

The television series Fringe, created by J. J. Abrams, Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci, is a science fiction television series that first aired on September 9, 2008. The show is about an FBI “Fringe” Division based out of Boston, Massachusetts. Fringe follows FBI Special Agent Olivia Dunham (Anna Torv), scientist Walter Bishop (John Noble), and his son Peter Bishop (Joshua Jackson) as they investigate different unexplained occurrences (genetic mutation, teleportation, artificial intelligence, etc) throughout the world.

The Sleeper Curve is Steven Johnson’s theory that popular culture in the form of media “has, on average, grown more complex and intellectually challenging…” (xv). Johnson formulated his ideas from George Will’s when he said “I see a progressive story: mass culture growing more sophisticated, demanding more cognitive engagement with each passing year” (xv).

Steven Johnson’s theories and ideas on the Sleeper Curve are very apparent in the television series Fringe. Fringe has everything from the social networking to the flashing arrows which show opposition to Johnson’s theories. Another key factor in Fringe would be the full force of multithreads. I have not seen one episode of Fringe where there has not been multiple scenarios going on during the same episode. Every Fringe episode is a twisted web helping to implement Johnson’s sleeper curve theory.

Social networking for Fringe is a tangled web of characters (Figure 1). Although is small compared to other shows like CSI and Everybody Loves Raymond, yet complex. Most all of the characters are related in some way shape or form, but it is not as easy as them hanging out to notice it. For some of the networks one would have to start watching the series and stick with to understand what is going on; it for instance Agent Dunham is only connected to the CEO of Massive Dynamics Nina Sharp by what she knows of when she participated in drug trials as a child. In Figure 1 above, is one of Johnson’s character webs, this character web displays characters from the television series Fringe. Above is a web of nine characters all connected (displayed with connecting lines).



Figure 1

While flashing arrows are against Johnson’s Sleepers Curve, they are apparent in Fringe; flashing arrows appear in the music, visions, and even when cretin people show up in a seen. There is one particular man that shows up in every episode. This man tall – white – baldheaded, is known only as The Observer; will show up randomly at any given time, and once he shows up something happens to alter the story line for that particular episode. Fringe uses it music to its advantage; the music is used build up suspense and adds dramatic effect and after the build up something might happen, but then again sometimes nothing happens at all. There is one other flashing arrows that is very apparent in almost every episode. This flashing arrow comes in the form of Special Agent Olivia Dunham dreams that she often has. In almost every episode Agent Dunham has a dream or nightmare that shows what could come later in the episode, but this is not always true; Agent Dunham has even had dreams of her past that help to peace together a mystery.

Fringe is a television series with few multithreads per episode. Unlike CSI Miami which can end an episode with three separate story lines Fringe is lucky to go one episode with more than a single story line. Johnson’s idea of multithreads make a television show more complex due to the overwhelming number of items that one must comprehend at any given time during the show.

While Fringe is a great example of Johnson’s Sleeper Curve theory, it does not cover all of his complete thoughts. In the television section of Everything Bad is Good For You, Fringe covers every section including the part disproving Johnson (Flashing Arrows). Johnson goes on in his book to talk about video games, movies, the internet, and how they growing more complex and intellectually stimulating. Although Fringe does not completely fulfill Johnson’s theory it is a prime example for supporting some of Johnson’s arguments in the section on television.

Twitter and all the good for you

Over the past ten weeks I have been interpreting Twitter into Steven Johnson’s “Everything bad is Good for you” argument of the Sleeper Curve. I came to find that Twitter is exemplifying with Johnson’s argument of the Sleeper Curve. Twitter is a popular website today. Johnson talks about three different things that have the internet on the rise that challenged our minds in three fundamental ways: virtue of being participatory, learning new interfaces, and new channels for social interaction (Johnson 117-8). Some people might think the internet is not making our conversation any better but it really is making our culture better at the same time. Twitter makes our brain work less than it should but at the same time it is enhancing our cognitive faculties and making our pop culture smarter.

The Sleeper Curve has three crucial pieces to it. The internet part of the Sleeper Curve talk about three fundamental way to challenged our minds 1) virtue of being participatory 2)learning new interfaces 3)creating new channels for social interaction. The internet is a new form of pop culture that had been around for more than a decade ago. It’s one thing to adapt your lifestyle to include time for sitting around watching a moving image on a screen; it’s quite another thing to learn a whole new language of communication and a small army of software tools along with it (Johnson 117). Yes many people had to change the way they way living for this new form of communication that is pop culture today.

Twitter is a new form of communication in today pop culture media. Twitter is basically a social network where you are on their communicating with different people. What you are doing all day is following different people and people are following you. Today everyone has a Twitter, from celebrity to normal people. Twitter is a hand on web site where you really do not have to have any brains to do much. Twitter has gotten to that point where how you can “tweet” form your phone now. “Tweet” is just another name to call it rather that “twittering”. Millions of people are Tweeting every day, and twice as many are on Twitter.

My first point of Johnson’s in comparison with Twitter is being participatory: participatory is you engaging yourself into the web site that you have gotten on. “Everyone recognized that the practices of composing email and clicking on hyper links were going to be mainstream actives” (Johnson 118). How you use this on Twitter well by writing I your blog box with only a 140 characters and writing to different people. People might put up question for their follower to answer different blogs might have hyper link in it, you can click on it and it will open up another web site with whatever they wanted people to see. For example I was reading one of P.Diddy’s blog that he had wrote, it said something about haters so he had a link on his blog and I click on it, it had part of Katt Williams “American Hustle” the part where Katt talks about having haters. I was using the participatory fundamental way of challenging our minds.

My second point of Johnson’s in comparison to Twitter is learning new interfaces: an interface is when you are in control of the system. “The accelerating pace of new platforms and software applications forces users to probe and master new environment “(Johnson 121). The interface part of Twitter really does not fit into what Johnson says about it but it does fit into face book. There is not many software application is can get on Twitter but on the other hand you can find most application on face book. Face book has this list of different gadgets you can put on your page. For examples you got this photo gadget where you can put on your page. You can upload a lot of photo and put your page. Whereas on Twitter you have to spend time look for the link to add your photos and that is just doing too much.

The last point of Johnson’s comparison to Twitter is social interaction: Social interaction on web is when you are interacting with different social group online. “in fact, nearly all of the most hyped development on the webs for augmenting social connection: on line personals, social, business network sites” (Johnson 124). Twitter is basically all three of these social sites put into one. Well one it a personal site because you have your profile set up and everything. Then next it’s a social site because you are socializing with different people. The final one is business, Twitter is for everyone, I have seen business with their Twitter page. They are promoting their business Columbus Jobs has a Twitter I am following them and they are following me. They post new Jobs up every day if they are hiring.

Steven Johnson’s book “Everything Bad for You is good” made the statement that pop culture is making society smart. Twitter, even though there is not much to do on that site. It stills a great point out the Sleeper Curve and how today technology is making our popular culture smarter than the last decade. Today you have three fundamental ways is challenging today young people’s brain. Participatory, interface and social interface is what the internet offers the society today.

Works Cited

Johnson, Steven. Everything Bad Is Good For You. New York: the Penguin Group, 2005.

The Study of Futurama through Eyes Johnson

“Futurama controlling you through a chip in your butt since 1999,”not really but I couldn’t help but putting this as an opening statement because it goes along so well with the main idea of the paper. Let’s start in the beginning, Futurama is a TV show that was created by Matt Groening, the creator of The Simpsons, and for the most part was relativity popular for the few years it was on TV. In my opinion, the complex story lines, the complicated character webs, and the repeatability that never gets old puts Futurama in sync with the “Sleeper Curve” that author Steven Johnson discusses.

Steven Johnson is the author of a book called Everything Bad is Good For You, in the book he discusses that everything that is said to be bad for you, popular culture, is actually good for you. He describes the trend of the smartening of popular culture as “The Sleeper Curve.” Now the big points Johnson discuss about TV and movies are the flashing arrows, multi threading, filing in the gaps, and the repeatability of the show. I will discuss Futurama's relevance to these categories.

The first point I’m going to talk about that Johnson mentions are flashing arrows, Johnson says flashing arrows are “... a narrative sign post, planted conveniently to help the audience keep track of what’s going on.”(Johnson 73) Now these are easily seen in “first generation slasher movies,” with the obvious signs that something terrible is going to happen to the character on screen.( Johnson 72) However, as TV gets more complex and smarter shows tend to not use flashing arrows as much and we tend to be “kept in the dark” in order to make our minds work to try and figure out the story; now that we have been trained to be in the “dark” for a several years the writers of the shows can lose the flashing arrows, or our hypothetical “training wheels” used to guide us thought the plot.(Johnson 75-7) Now Futurama doesn’t use flashing arrows like some of the older TV shows like Murder She Wrote were they always showed you the killer in the beginning and the clue they left behind; it was the viewers job to watch and be impressed with how Jessica Fletche found the clues and suspect.

Futurama obviously isn’t a murder show but it does still have a few hinting areas in it. I wouldn’t necessarily call them flashing arrows more of just very clever foreshadowing. You might not notice them at first, but after watching the show again you would notice that that a certain scene is a foreshadowing of incidents bound to happen. A good example of this is in one of the episodes where Bender (the robot) started to hate humans, before he got off the ship to go to a planet of human killing robots Fry (guy from the future) and Lela (one eyed alien) told him to act like he hated humans, and he replied in a sarcastic voice “I’ll try.” This to me is a foreshadowing Bender will start to hate humans, and in fact he becomes one of the most famous human haters on the killer robot planet.

Now the next thing Johnson talks about is multiple threading. Multiple threading “weaves together a collection of distinct strands- sometimes as many as ten;” essentially it’s the connecting of several smaller story plots, in a episode, together to give it complexity instead of following one story line. (Johnson 67) Now Futurama fits perfectly in with this idea; it often has two possibly three or four story threads going at once. For example take the first episode “Pilot,” there’s the thread about how Fry was frozen and unthawed 1,000 years in the future. His life sucked back in the year 2,000 so he is happy in the cool new future. Then they present the story thread of Lela trying to do her job and implant a career chip in Fry (which he doesn’t want); while at the same time being upset with her job. Then they introduce the story thread of Bender who is trying to kill him self because he hates his job. They all “weave” together in the end with the story thread of the professor (Fry’s Great…Great Nephew) who is looking for a new three man crew for his delivery ship. (Johnson 67)

Now it may seem complicated on paper but the writers cut and splice scenes to make it flow together as if it was one story, but in reality its like four smaller stories put into one to make an episode. The shows smart multiple threading puts it right up their with Johnson’s “Sleeper Curve.”

Another thing Johnson discusses is filling in the gaps. “You’ll enjoy this more if your capable of remembering a throw away line from three years ago, or if you noticed that we’ve framed this scene to echoes the end of Double Indemnity.” (Johnson 87) Now Johnson isn’t crazy what he’s describing here is how TV sitcoms like The Simpsons and Seinfeld started to pull jokes and lines from past episode and throw a new twist to them in current or newer episode. This causes the viewers to pull the line or joke from their memory in order to truly understand it, aka filling in the gap. Johnson says, “the jokes come in layers… you can watch a episode and miss all the film riffs and still enjoy the show” (Johnson 87) However, it would be a “richer” and “more rewarding experience” if you did understand all the “film riffs.” (Johnson 87)

For instance in the one of the episodes of Futurama Lela sleeps with Zap Branagain (a jackass whose a commander in the democratic space fleet). In future episodes Lela and Zap have run-ins and every time Zap tries to impress her and acts like she’s his girlfriend. Now if you didn’t watch you might wonder why this guy is such a creeper; you might be able to deduce something happened between them, but if you just watched that one episode so many questions between those two characters are answered.

Like in the episode “A Flight to Remember”, as Fry and Lela were walking on the ship she noticed Zap. Zap said, “my, my if it isn’t Captain Lela, might you accompany me on this cruse.” Lela responded saying, “I would love to but I have a boy friend.” Then she pulls Fry close to her and said, “Zap I would like you to meet my boy friend, Fry.” Now you would understand if you never knew they slept together that Lela just wasn’t interested, but if you did know that information from the past episode the joke of having a fake boyfriend would be “richer” and have more meaning. (Johnson 87)

One last thing I want to touch on that Johnson talks about is the repeatability of the show. Johnson says, “already, any given episode of a successful television show will be seen by more people in syndication than it will during its first run on network TV.” (Johnson 160) Basically what Johnson is saying is that watching reruns and DVD forms of the shows are already get the show more views than its premiere on network TV. Because of this shows are now adding in more features “that reward great scrutiny;” like little hidden things in an episode, or watching a episode for the fifth time and noticing a joke you don’t remember hearing. Malcolm Gladwell agrees saying, “The extraordinary amount of money now being made in the television aftermarket—DVD sales means that the creators…. have an incentive to make programming that can sustain two or three or four viewings.” (Gladwell)

Futurama definitely fits into this category because I never watched it on TV, but now that I’ve seen it on DVD I can’t get enough of it; I went and got two other seasons of it, and I continuously watch the episodes over and over. I watch the episodes that much because I like the challenge of trying to find the hidden things in each episode. Like in the episode “Pilot,” theirs a scene were Fry and Bender hide in a Head Museum (were all the dead celebrity’s heads are cut off and kept alive in a jar), and they have a camera shot of them hiding behind a shelf of heads. One of the heads on the shelf is the head of Matt Groening (the creator of the show.) That little discovery made me feel so good about my observation skills and urged me on to try and find other hidden secrets in each episode.

Joe Rhodes of the New York Times agrees with me about Futurama saying, “…with its share of inside jokes, many requiring freeze-frame study to appreciate it fully.” (Rhodes) Rhodes is just reinforcing my argument that Futurama isn’t just a once you’ve seen it your done with it, kind of show. A good example of this is the foreshadowing example I presented earlier. I didn’t notice that what Bender said was a foreshadowing of future events; however, after a second glance it dawned on me that it was a big indicator of what would happen next.

Although not everyone fully agrees that Futurama is a clever show that is attributing to our culture in a positive way. “…The show lacks the vision of The Simpsons, the snappy rhythm and the kind of far-reaching humor that keep it dizzyingly smart even after a decade on the air. Is there anything good to say about Futurama? Sure, it's better than Two Guys, a Girl and a Pizza,” said by Ginia Bellafante. (Bellafante) Now Mrs. Bellafante said this about the shows premier episode which in my opinion isn’t a fair assessment of the shows full potential. Also if she had bothered going back and using a little wisdom from Johnson and watched the episode again she may have seen it in a different light, and had a different opinion on it. I think her quote fits right in the old category of don’t judge a book by its cover. The show wasn’t meant to just be viewed once and skimmed over. It’s a show that has some depth to it and deserves a second look in my opinion.

So In conclusion I do believe that Futurama fits into the “Sleeper Curve” pretty well. It has no flashing arrows just clever foreshadowing like in the Bender example I gave. It has a nice multiple threading like with the example of the “pilot” episode. It has a variety of jokes and lines that are brought up over several seasons for filling in the gaps like in the example of Lela and Zap. And of course it has repeatability that makes you want to watch it over and over like in the example I gave about the Head Museum. If you don’t like the show just don’t kick it to the curb give it a second try you might find it has grown on you, and then you might actually find it amusing. Like other shows of today’s popular culture Futurama is no exception to Johnson’s “Sleeper Curve.”

Works Cited
Johnson, Steven. Everything Bad Is Good For You. New York: Penguin Books, 2006.
Bellafante, Ginia. “Futurama.” Time. 29 March 1999. 31 May 2008. .
Rhodes, Joe. “Back to the Animated Future, this Time on DVD.” New York Times. 27 November 2007. 21 May 2008. .
Gladwell, Malcolm. “Brain Candy.” The New Yorker. 16 May 2005. 21 May 2009. .
“Pilot”. Futurama: The First Season. Writ. Matt Groening and David X. Cohen. Dir. Matt Groening. Fox. 28 March 1999. DVD. 20th Century Fox, 2003
“A Flight To Remember” Futurama: The First Season. Writ. Matt Groening and David X. Cohen. Dir. Matt Groening. Fox. 26 September1999 . DVD. 20th Century Fox, 2003
“Fear of a Bot Planet” Futurama: The First Season. Writ. Matt Groening and David X. Cohen. Dir. Matt Groening. Fox.20 April 1999. DVD. 20th Century Fox, 2003

By Zander Shumar