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.