Everything Bad Is Good For You

When I first heard about this book by Steven Johnson, I felt much better about playing video games and watching television. Certain games allow us to fantasize and daydream … others require holding on to a variety of details, in the same way as a game of chess. Of course, I appreciate the title of the book, which suggests that previous generations have deemed these activities as a waste of time, i.e., ‘bad’ for us.

By everything bad Johnson means video games and today’s TV, which supposedly stupefy and corrupt their users with repetition and violence. But set aside characters, settings, and other representational content, Johnson says, and consider procedural-systemic content. The games require discovering and employing their rules in increasingly complex situations; new TV, including reality TV, requires construing and remembering relationships among many characters and interpreting developments inferentially from what is learned.

Such games and shows teach users how to find “order and meaning in the world” and make “decisions that help create that order.” Later Johnson points out that, despite contemporary Cassandras screaming that pop culture and its consumers just get dumber and dumber, average IQ has risen at the same time that games and TV have become increasingly complex. The violent crime rate, the demographic for which overlaps heavily with that for video-game playing, has plummeted, too. Exemplifying from such hits as Sims, Grand Theft Auto, Seinfeld, Survivor, and 24; never disparaging high culture, especially literature; and writing with maximum clarity, Johnson broadcasts good news, indeed.
Ray Olson
Copyright © American Library Association

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