Everything Bad is Good For You Steven Johnson David Janna AP LANG. And COMP: October 22/2011

Introduction EBIGFY The author demonstrates in the first two subsections how videogames and other modern 21st century innovations are actually making us smarter.

Good or Bad? He believes that social virtue of pop culture can be assessed differently, by looking at the media as a kind of cognitive workout, instead of a series of life lessons. Johnson mentions the The American Parents Television Council states that there are indeed more negative messages in today’s entertainment world. (This is not the only way to evaluate whether our television or video games are having a positive impact.)

Terminology Sleeper Curve: From the Woody Allen film Sleeper, where "scientists from 2173 are astounded that twentieth-century society failed to grasp the nutritional merits of cream pies and hot fudge" Johnson uses this term to argue against the traditional perception of the deteriorating standards of pop culture.

Smarter? Television and video games are having a positive impact among people. The important part is to have the kind of thinking you have to develop to make sense of a cultural experience. Here is where the Sleeper Curve is applicable. “Today’s popular culture may not be showing us the righteous path. But it is making us smarter.” Pg. 14

What if:

VS What if video games were invented and popularized before books? Kids would been playing video games for centuries, suddenly these page bound texts appear…… VS

VIDEO GAMES! Gameplaying engages kids in a vivid, three-dimensional world full of moving images and musical landscapes, navigated and controlled with complex muscular movements. Games engage the full range of the sensory and motor cortices.

…books Reading books chronically causes the under stimulation of the senses. Books are only a simple barren string of words on a page. Only a small portion of the brain is devoted to processing a written language. Books are isolating.

Conclusion Johnson suggests that: “While games have for many years engaged the young in complex social relationships with their peers, building an exploring worlds together, books force the child to sequester him or herself in a quiet space, shut off from interaction with other children.” Pg. 19

PART 2

Game Culture The fact of de-emphasizing the content of game culture shouldn’t be seen as a cop-out. Johnson states, “De-emphasizing the content of game culture shouldn't be seen as a copout […]No one complains about the simplistic militaristic plot of chess games.”(40) People in the 21st century ignore the content of many activities that are actually considered to be good for the brain or the body. Cop-out: An instance of avoiding a commitment or responsibility.

Pgs. 40-41 Critical Thinking: VG When you play a video game, take a second critical view in everything behind the joy stick and the screen, you’ll learn something different from the usual. In Johnsons view, “Its not what you're thinking about when you're playing a game, it’s the way you're thinking that matters.” (40)This distinction is not exclusive to video games. Johnson quotes John Dewy to explain his point. In his book Experience and Education Dewey says that the greatest of all pedagogical fallacies is the notion that a person learns only that particular thing which he is studying in that moment. Collateral learning is crucial for the formation of enduring attitude, of what you like and don’t like, and this is much more important than the spelling lesson or history lesson that is learned. These attitudes are in the end what count in the future according to Dewey. Pgs. 40-41

Intellectual Benefits Novels may activate our imagination, and music may elicit powerful emotions. In regards to these characteristics, Johnson maintains that “VIDEO GAMES for ce you to speculate about what's going on under the hood […] You have to probe to progress.” Electronic gaming strengthens ones ability to make decisions, to choose, to prioritize. Gamers develop a great sense of responsibility thanks to all the tasks that a video game may assign to him/she. All of the intellectual benefits of gaming mentioned by Johnson, derive from the fundamental virtue (not what you're thinking about when you're playing a game, it’s the way you're thinking that matters), because learning how to think is ultimately about learning to make the right decisions: Weighing evidence, analyzing situations, consulting your long term goals, and then deciding. Continue on next slide

ADDICTIVE

This type of pop cultural activity (gaming) is the only one that directly engages the brains decision making apparatus, in this way. When you see a gamer, you see the outside. A gamer that is in a fury of clicking and shooting, which si in fact why so much of the conventional wisdom about games focuses on HAND-EYE coordination. Now understand the gamers mind, the primary activity turns out to be something different. Making decisions, snap judgments, and take long term strategies are the type decisions that make gamers addictive. Steven Johnson explains his argument by stating that, “…video games are the digital equivalent of crack cocaine. […] thanks in part to its manipulations of the dopamine system.” on two modes of intellectual labor, which are crucial to the collateral learning of playing games. Johnson calls them probing and telescoping.

Part 32

TV

Bibliography Everything Bad is Good For You By: Steven Johnson