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.