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.