Everything Bad Is Good for You free essay sample

The Innovation of Educational Tools Playing video games and watching TV shows are beneficial types of popular culture. Conventional wisdom would argue that new media is a bad influence and that the only way to be intelligent is by reading. In the book Everything Bad is Good For You, author Steven Johnson, argues that even though our popular culture seems to get dumber, it is actually getting smarter. Johnson proves his arguments by comparing and explaining the benefits of the complexity of modern video games, television shows, and movies that require active participation and critical thinking in order for players and viewers to understand what is going on. Modern popular culture requires a lot of mental work, active engagement and problem solving. Rather than being the mindless, mind-numbing time-wasters as conventional wisdom believe, these activities strengthen problem-solving, reasoning abilities and skills that can help people in their daily lives and professions. In addition, Johnson explains that the reason why popular culture is becoming harder is because our brain likes to be challenged and the entertainment industry makes a profit by creating complicated video games, TV shows and new technology because that is what people want. As a result, new media should be approached as a new tool that helps society to become more analytically prepared for real life situations. According to Johnson, popular culture improves the way young people think. Video games for example require that players improve their skills and master certain levels before moving to the next one. Popular culture critics judge video games by its content, not by the way it is played, which challenge the players to solve problems. Although the old fashioned entertainment of reading has a lot of rewards, so do video games. For example, Johnson at one point points out that, â€Å"the culture is getting more intellectually demanding, not less† (9). Our culture is getting more complex; therefore, we are getting smarter in mastering it and video games are part of that reason. Johnson says that people get smart because video games are not just about eye and hand coordination; video games require thinking: â€Å"when you put the game down and move back to the real world, you may find yourself mentally working through the problem you’ve been wrestling with, as though you were worrying a loose tooth† (25 26). Games are clearly not just shooting something down; it requires strategies, it is challenging, it is frustrating and not always fun. Gaming improves the way people think because even after playing the game, players continue formulating ideas in their brain on how to overcome challenges they face in video games. As a result, video games are not â€Å"dumbing people down;† it makes players â€Å"think outside the box† in order to understand its complexity and overcome obstacles. Video games are popular, not because of their flashy graphics, but because of the way it inspires players to think and seek out rewards and explore environments. Johnson describes how video game players have to work mentally while playing in order to progress in a game: â€Å"†¦the mental labor of managing all these simultaneous objectives [is] ‘telescoping’†¦ this skill lies in focusing on immediate problems while still maintaining a long-distance view. You can’t progress far in a game if you simply deal with the puzzles you stumble across; you have to coordinate them with the ultimate objectives on the horizon† (54). In order for a player to beat the game, the player must organize short and long term objectives psychologically while playing the game. It shows that playing video games requires critical thinking to prioritize objectives and be successful. Conventional wisdom believe that playing video games does not require thinking. However, playing video games clearly requires a more complex type of thinking than reading books because the player has to act in the moment, while planning his/her next move. Therefore, playing video games are not making a person stupid. Popular culture has been growing more sophisticated with each passing year, and far from rotting our brains, it’s actually setting new cognitive challenges that are actually making our minds measurably sharper. Like video games, popular culture is cognitively enhancing its audience through modern TV shows. Johnson demonstrates this by comparing early TV shows to the modern ones. Johnson describes a scene of an early TV show where a girl left the door open: â€Å"As the door shuts behind her, the camera swoops in on the door knob, and we see that she’s left the door unlocked. The camera pulls back, and then swoops down again, for emphasis. And then a flashing arrow appears on the screen, with text that helpfully explains: ‘door unlocked! ’† (73). In order for a viewer to understand this scene, the viewer simply has to follow the arrows. The scene clearly does not require the viewer to think about what is going on because everything is explained with details and the viewer already knows what to expect. On the other hand, Johnson explains the complexity of modern TV shows that require viewers to think: â€Å"†¦viewers of shows like Hill Street Blues in the eighties no doubt had moments of confusion where the sheer number of simultaneous plots created present-tense mystery: we’d forget why Renko was wearing that busboy outfit because we’d forgotten about the earlier sequence introducing the undercover plot† (76). It is difficult to understand this scene unless the viewer remembers what had happened before to fill in the missing information. Without any doubt, viewers of modern TV shows have to pay more attention and think critically about what is going on, what happened and what is going to happen. TV shows aren’t easy like before, now the viewer has to analyze everything or else they will not understand the show because there aren’t any flashing arrows. Similarly, reality television shows are strengthening society’s skill to solve social problems. Conventional wisdom would argue that viewers watch these shows because they enjoy watching contestants being humiliated. However, people like watching modern TV shows because they are challenging and also because viewers like to solve problems by filling in missing information. Johnson explains where the viewers’ satisfaction comes in watching reality TV shows: â€Å"The pleasure in these shows comes not from watching other human beings humiliated on national television; it comes from depositing other human beings in a complex, high-stakes environment where no established strategies exist, and watching them find their bearings† (94). Evidently, viewers do not watch reality shows to laugh at participants being bullied or criticized, but rather to watch participants strategize in their constantly changing environments. Therefore, viewers learn how to be socially competent by placing themselves in the contestants’ situations. As a result, the audience learns to develop important skills that can be useful in their professional lives. Finally, the reason why society focuses so much on popular media is because it delivers cognitive exercises in the most interesting ways. The driving force behind popular culture is the human brain; our brain wants to solve problems because it desires challenges. According to Johnson, the assumption about the brains cravings for mild amusements and quick pleasures is backward: we are a problem-solving species, and when we confront situations where information needs to be filled in, or where a puzzle needs to be untangled, our minds compulsively ruminate on the problem until weve figured it out (181). If the brain is presented with a problem we want to solve it. Contrary to conventional wisdom, the brain welcomes challenges and is willing to solve problems it faces. Clearly popular culture is a complex medium that provides multiple avenues where our problem solving skills are tested and strengthened. According to Johnson, advancement in technology is one of the driving forces behind the complexity of popular culture. Technology of repetition allows viewers to have control over what they want to watch, having an impact on the quality of television programming and the producers. Johnson explains that in order for the entertainment industry to make a profit, they need to make something interesting and complicated: â€Å"Design each title so that it can be watched many times, and you’ll end up with more interesting and more challenging culture. And you might just get rich along the way† (166). In order for an industry to make money, it must create something that will challenge the viewer so the viewer will re-watch the show. However, to allow the viewer to re-watch the TV show, the viewer needs a repetition technology. Johnson introduces the modern technology that allows viewers to have a better understanding of the TV shows: â€Å"[The] proliferating new recording technologies [or] technologies of convenience: [allows] you [to] watch what you want to watch, when you want to watch it†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (168). New technologies of repetition allow viewers to analyze a complicated or interesting modern TV shows to have a deeper understanding. Clearly, a TV show must be interesting and complex in order for a viewer to have some interest in re-watching the show. As a result, the entertainment industry must meet society’s hunger for new challenges in popular culture to continue making a profit. In conclusion, popular culture is a new educational tool that helps society strengthen their problem-solving skills and become analytically prepared for their social life and profession. Modern technology is in fact a positive influence on a person’s intellectual development. Conventional wisdom must realize that everything changes over time. The way we solve problems now is different from back then. We live in a new era; we are now able to face problems in ways we never have before. Because of this, conventional wisdom cannot deny the benefits of popular culture. Popular culture is an improved educational tool that helps society understand the world we live in today. Works Cited Johnson, Steven. Everything Bad is Good For You. New York: Riverhead Books, 2005. Print.