5/18/2005
Watching TV, Playing Video Games Making Us Smarter
Sean L. McCarthyWednesday, May 18, 2005 - Updated: 11:27 AM EST
Some critics look at popular culture and see a rerun of the fall of the Roman Empire; Steven Johnson sees a new Renaissance.
Johnson, author of ``Everything Bad is Good For You: How Today's Popular Culture is Actually Making Us Smarter,'' appears tonight at the Harvard Bookstore in Cambridge to share his insights.
He makes his case by laying out various ways in which TV shows, movies and video games have gotten more complex as technology advances, then argues that increased IQ scores are a direct result of consuming the more complex forms of media and entertainment.
Johnson points to hit shows such as ``Lost,'' ``24,'' ``Alias,'' and ``The Sopranos'' as proof that the TV dramas believe their audiences are smarter, introducing multiple story arcs, interweaving plots and subtle hints that challenge the viewer to keep pace.
Shows of previous generations were simpler and more predictable, he argues.
``Watch `Starsky and Hutch' or `Dragnet' after watching `The Sopranos' and you'll feel as though you're being condescended to,'' he writes.
Johnson applies that logic to the evolution of the sitcom (``Seinfeld'' vs. ``Three's Company'') and video games (Zelda vs. Pac-Man).
In the end, he isn't so much concerned with whether the offerings are inherently good or bad. ``Today's popular culture may not be showing us the righteous path,'' he argues. ``But it is making us smarter.''Steven Johnson reads and signs his book, ``Everything Bad is Good For You,'' at 6:30 tonight at Harvard Bookstore, 1256 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, 617-661-1515.
Johnson, author of ``Everything Bad is Good For You: How Today's Popular Culture is Actually Making Us Smarter,'' appears tonight at the Harvard Bookstore in Cambridge to share his insights.
He makes his case by laying out various ways in which TV shows, movies and video games have gotten more complex as technology advances, then argues that increased IQ scores are a direct result of consuming the more complex forms of media and entertainment.
Johnson points to hit shows such as ``Lost,'' ``24,'' ``Alias,'' and ``The Sopranos'' as proof that the TV dramas believe their audiences are smarter, introducing multiple story arcs, interweaving plots and subtle hints that challenge the viewer to keep pace.
Shows of previous generations were simpler and more predictable, he argues.
``Watch `Starsky and Hutch' or `Dragnet' after watching `The Sopranos' and you'll feel as though you're being condescended to,'' he writes.
Johnson applies that logic to the evolution of the sitcom (``Seinfeld'' vs. ``Three's Company'') and video games (Zelda vs. Pac-Man).
In the end, he isn't so much concerned with whether the offerings are inherently good or bad. ``Today's popular culture may not be showing us the righteous path,'' he argues. ``But it is making us smarter.''Steven Johnson reads and signs his book, ``Everything Bad is Good For You,'' at 6:30 tonight at Harvard Bookstore, 1256 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, 617-661-1515.
