Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Unavailable
    Everything Bad is Good for You: How Today's Popular Culture Is Actually Making Us Smarter
    Unavailable
    Everything Bad is Good for You: How Today's Popular Culture Is Actually Making Us Smarter
    Unavailable
    Everything Bad is Good for You: How Today's Popular Culture Is Actually Making Us Smarter
    Audiobook6 hours

    Everything Bad is Good for You: How Today's Popular Culture Is Actually Making Us Smarter

    Published by Penguin Random House Audio

    Narrated by Jason Culp

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    From the author of the New York Times bestseller Mind Wide Open comes a groundbreaking assessment of popular culture as it's never been considered before: through the lens of intelligence.Forget everything you've ever read about the age of dumbed-down, instant-gratification culture. In this provocative, unfailingly intelligent, thoroughly researched, and surprisingly convincing book, Steven Johnson draws from fields as diverse as neuroscience, economics, and media theory to argue that the pop culture we soak in every day-from Lord of the Rings to Grand Theft Auto to The Simpsons-has been growing more sophisticated with each passing year, and, far from rotting our brains, is actually posing new cognitive challenges that are actually making our minds measurably sharper. You will never regard the glow of the video game or television screen the same way again.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateMay 2, 2006
    ISBN9781101546048
    Unavailable
    Everything Bad is Good for You: How Today's Popular Culture Is Actually Making Us Smarter

    Related to Everything Bad is Good for You

    Related audiobooks

    Psychology For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Editorial

      May 3, 2018

      I sometimes wonder whether the truth is overrated. Does it do us any good to know the world is in a terrible and terrifying state? Wouldn’t we be happier if our crushes told us they loved us desperately, completely, exclusively? Who wants an expert o

      1 min read

    • Article

      Trigger Happy

      May 18, 2023

      Trigger Happy
      3 min read

    • Article

      Reviews

      Mar 21, 2024

      Reviews
      5 min read

    • Article

      Mixed Messages

      Oct 3, 2021

      Mixed Messages
      2 min read

    • Article

      Society

      Sep 20, 2023

      Society
      6 min read

    • Article

      Real Or Fake? Stuck In The Glitching Reality Of Contemporary America

      May 23, 2019

      While I was in my early thirties, my parents died in impolite succession. My mother first, in 2010, then my father in 2012. He was in his early eighties, but she was 16 years younger and had no business going anywhere. They passed the illness baton f

      7 min read

    • Article

      Ink Well

      Nov 20, 2018

      Ink Well
      1 min read

    • Article

      What World Shall We Create?

      Apr 9, 2020

      As the quarantine continues, as I gaze out my window at the quiet street in front of my house -- wow, look, there's a cardinal . . . oh yeah, there's a neighbor walking her dog -- I swell with wonder at the paradoxical unity, "the shared humanity," I

      4 min read

    • Article

      The Bright Side

      Jan 15, 2018

      ACCORDING TO THE LATEST DATA, people are living longer and becoming healthier, better fed, richer, smarter, safer, more connected—and, at the same time, ever gloomier about the state of the world. As the political scientist John Mueller once summed u

      2 min read

    • Article

      Test Your Trivia Knowledge for Science

      Dec 23, 2022

      I was watching Jeopardy! not long ago when a photo of Michael Caine was revealed with the clue, “To honor his father, this star here was knighted in his birth name, so he’s Sir Maurice Micklewhite.” The contestant, who appeared to be in his 30s, rang

      3 min read

    • Article

      Steal This Meme: Beyond Truth and Lies

      Feb 6, 2020

      That most people know that Trump is lying—and that he still gets away with it—counterintuitively shows how masterful said lying is. The post Steal This Meme: Beyond Truth and Lies appeared first on The Millions.

      14 min read

    • Article

      Online Non-fiction Market

      Nov 5, 2020

      GEN is a US-based online magazine published through Medium devoted to exploring politics, power, and culture. Deputy editor Michelle Legro is now accepting pitches for a new series of features called ‘How I Got Radicalized’. The features will ‘looks

      1 min read

    • Article

      Portraits Of A Nation

      Sep 13, 2021

      Portraits Of A Nation
      3 min read

    • Article

      Back To Basics

      May 15, 2022

      Back To Basics
      2 min read

    • Article

      A Nation of Hostages

      Jul 5, 2022

      A Nation of Hostages
      4 min read

    • Article

      Waking Up to Reality

      Apr 7, 2020

      Waking Up to Reality
      5 min read

    Reviews for Everything Bad is Good for You

    3.5/5

    436 ratings25 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 3/5
      I think I'm moderately convinced of the premise, but I think it could have been more thoroughly developed. An argument based primarily on examples (because of a dearth of holistic studies) benefits from as many and as varied examples as possible; this felt more like a conveniently selected few.
      Also, probably like any pop culture monograph published in 2005, this feels pretty dated.
    • 3/5
      How the brain works, why reading is not necessarily good for you, and video games bad for you. A strong argument for the value of gaming in developing analytical skill.
    • 5/5
      Enjoyable essay on the sleeper curve. The lowest common denominator of entertainment is actually much more challenging for the viewer then it was 30 or 20 years ago. This means there is more expected of the consumer of entertainment, and to enjoy these more challenging forms we have to be smarter to keep up. Good for librarians who are questioned why libraries should stock DVDs or games, they are more complex than ever and require a lot of work and learning to be able to enjoy and get the most out of them.
    • 5/5
      Everything bad is good for you is something as unorthodox as a passionate argument about the cognitive benefits of popular culture. Johnson claims that popular culture today is so challenging and stimulating that we get heavy mental exercise by consuming it. Much of the book focuses on games, which is where I believe Johnson has the strongest case: Popular video games demand thinking and well thought strategies and plans, chores sometimes have to be performed, gratification is delayed, patience is required. Some lament how games are not like books, but like Johnson, says, the novelistic parts of games are their least interesting aspects. In games the content is not the primary benefit, but rather the mental exercise they provide. Reward and exploration are also essential parts: Players have to probe the game, explain it, figure out its rules and find its weak spots. To put it another way, they have to think about the system and what are the limits of the simulation. In this aspect - that ambiguity is essential - video games are different from board games and other traditional games. This is a highly entertaining account of games, and one that concurs very well with my own experience. Johnson also defends other parts of popular culture, such as television shows and films, that contain many more subplots and where action is expressed with much more subtlety than in previous times. Even reality shows and tv debates get a positive rap, since they require strategy and emotional intelligence and adaption as rule change, in the case of the former, and we are good at judging people by face. To some extent all this seems right, but the question is how much of popular culture it holds for. Though it must be said that at least in the case of tv shows, Johnson argues at length that it is not only niche high brow shows that now have a bigger market to cater to, but that also middle or low brow culture have been lifted. Johnson sees in all this an explanation of the Flynn effect, i.e. the sustained increase in measured intelligence test scores in many countries throughout most of the 20th century. That is a fascinating thought, but one that would demand more large-scale evidence than hitherto provided to be accepted. Hopefully some researchers out there are on the case.
    • 4/5
      Johnson has written several books on science and technology and his analyses are provocative. He suggests that television has evolved from shows that are essentially linear, with few characters and a simple story line, to shows like "The Sopranos" in which a single show would encompass multiple narrative threads and characters who move in and out of the plot, often with little explanation, requiring the viewer to do a lot of "filling in." Television now forces an engagement of the viewer that forces cognitive demands on the spectator.

      Video games have evolved similarly. Today's games might require forty hours to complete and require the player to make strategic decisions based on multiple sources of information. "This is why many of us [me, certainly:] find modern video games baffling: we're not used to being in a situation where we have to figure out what to do. We think we only have to learn how to press the buttons faster."

      A quote for us book lovers to mull over:

      "Reading books chronically understimulates the senses. Unlike the longstanding tradition of game playing--which engages the child in a vivid, three-dimensional world filled with moving images and musical soundscapes, navigated and controlled with complex muscular movements--books are simply a barren string of words on the page. . . .
      "Books are also tragically isolating [something I've always considered a benefit :))] While games have for many years engaged the young in complex social relationships with their peers, building and exploring worlds together, books force the child to sequester him or herself in a quiet space, shut off from interaction with other children. . . .
      "But perhaps the most dangerous property of books is the fact that they follow a fixed linear path. You can't control their narratives in any fashion--you simply sit back and have the story dictated to you. . . .This risks instilling a general passivity in our children, making them feel as though they're powerless to change their circumstances. Reading is not an active, participatory process; it's a submissive one."

      Johnson, in a jocular manner, is making the point that reading "is a form of explicit learning." Video games make you think. Of course, reading this book certainly got me thinking. . . .
    • 4/5
      The author puts forth a compelling argument that today’s “progressive trends in popular culture” are making us more intelligent rather than less. He cites the more complex storylines of today’s television which kicked off with “Hill Street Blues.” Video games require decision-making, often quickly, and he describes the probing and telescoping techniques that players use to understand and advance in a game. Reality shows and social networking sites help us with our social intelligence. The rapid changes of technology has forced users to play around with software and hypothesize about computre problems.He argues for a change in the way we determine what is junk and what is nourishing.
    • 5/5
      Before I read this book, I believed modern entertainment was progressively getting dumber, catering more and more to the lowest common denominator. Now, I have been convinced otherwise. Even the worst dreck of modern TV is in many ways more complex and intellectually demanding than comparable programs from earlier times.

      Does this mean books will soon go extinct, to be replaced by superior modern media?

      Mr. Johnson writes, "No cultural form in history has rivaled the novel’s capacity to re-create the mental landscape of another consciousness, to project you into the first person experience of other human beings. Movies and theater can make you feel as though you’re part of the action, but the novel gives you an inner vista that is unparalleled: you are granted access not just to the events of another human’s life, but to the precise way those events settle in his or her consciousness."

      In this statement he sums up precisely what I love about fiction. Authors distill the best parts of their imagination and then translate that distillate into words. Impossibly, I inhabit and assimilate their imagined lives.

      Other people have written about the benefits of literacy, social interaction, exercise, and sports. Maybe I'm too fond of contrarianism, but I loved reading arguments for the benefits of junk entertainment.
    • 3/5
      This book was interesting, in some ways--some of his logic is sound, some isn't, and he doesn't really provide a lot of supporting evidence. The end result is that if you believe the premise--that modern video games, television, movies, etc. actually encourage more thought than those of the '80s and previous--you'll believe the book, but if you don't agree with the premise, you probably won't be convinced. Worth a read so you can use it as a citation in arguments with technophobes and other anti-technology folks.
    • 2/5
      Everything Bad makes several worthwhile and interesting points, but rambles mostly without focus in what should have been a long magazine article. (I felt the same way about Curt Anderson's _The Long Tail_.)
    • 4/5
      When my grandson was 3 years old, he asked his parents to teach him to read, and by the time he turned 4 he could read remarkably well. So why was the little guy so eager to learn how to read? Because he wanted to play Zoo Tycoon, a computer game that requires some reading skills. His older sister could play the game, and he wanted to play, too.This came to mind while reading "Everything Bad Is Good for You" by Steven Johnson. The book makes a convincing case that such technological entertainments as television, electronic games, movies and the Internet, all often criticized for their negative impact on younger generations, are actually making people smarter.The key, according to Johnson, lies in their increasing complexity. Compare an episode of "The Sopranos" with an episode of "Dragnet," and you'll see there is no comparison. There are more characters, more story lines and more subtleties in the newer show. Similarly, compare "The Simpsons" with "The Flintstones" or "Seinfeld" with "The Mary Tyler Moore Show." It's not that the older shows were less entertaining, but they were less complex. They did not make viewers work as hard to follow everything or to catch all the cultural references or the references to previous episodes. You simply had to watch the older shows; you have to think to enjoy many of the shows now on the air. Even reality programs like "Survivor" require more mental engagement than older shows like "The Price Is Right."Similarly, the most popular games among young people are those that take many hours to master. Kids who may balk at the problem-solving required by their math teachers will happily devote an entire evening to solving a problem posed by a game like SimCity.Watching "Finding Nemo" may not be as intellectually rewarding as reading "Moby Dick," but compared with watching "Bambi" or some other animated children's movie from an earlier generation, today's kids are getting an intellectual feast.Thanks to blogs and a variety of interactive Web sites, young people are writing more — and perhaps reading more — than ever before.Modern technology does not seem to be making smart people smarter, Johnson says. Rather, it is making average people smarter. For evidence, he points to gradually rising IQs. Johnson still believes very much in the power of books. He chose to make his arguments in a book, not on his blog, after all. He is simply saying that popular culture, despite all the criticism it gets, has actually been beneficial, especially when compared against the popular culture of previous generations.Sometimes I think my grandson spends too much time playing electronic games. Then I remember it was a game that gave him the incentive to learn to read as a 3-year-old.
    • 3/5
      Essay #2: The Sleeper CurveIt’s imperative to constantly play the devil’s advocate, in regards to what drives and fascinates us as humans. We all possess certain amounts of cognitive dissonance that colors our attitudes, beliefs, and actions; things need to remain consistent in our cognitions, in order for our behavior to predict the reinforcement of positive rewards. As a result, these bi-products of our culture are forever changing, because we’re human and nobody can keep attitudes and behaviors that aren’t in some way causing a discrepancy with the other (Festinger 1959). Popular culture is radically altering our American identity. Change happens as a force of recurrent themes that “trigger” us and thrill us at the same time. Television, games, Manga, etc. navigate us through a slew themes which focalize on sex, violence, the domestic sphere, money, and drugs (Johnson 2005: 13). We want to question why we like what we like, but doing so fills us with more questions and these questions fill us with more longing to self-captivate and create allure in all our surroundings. Perhaps, reflection upon our surroundings would answer why these themes are present in modern day forms of popular cultural media and why these themes fulfill and infatuate our conscious. The themes themselves will have us behaving as insomniacs to get as much out of the culture before it changes as we can; meanwhile, held in a state of rampant anticipation for new advancements in popular culture, there is no way to possibly keep abreast of all of the changes. These questions are reconciled internally, of course. What kind of thinking needs to change? What works now? Do blackboards, chalk and conversation offer any less compelling educational experience than, say, laptops? Reliance on a personal laptop in this day and age is yielding to a new world full of interfaces (some connect and some don’t), but their journey waits just at our fingertips. Of course, this world requires learning, what world doesn’t? From this learning, we build from what we know to what we don’t know, which is a cleverly disguised new language necessitating proficiency, in order to procure our rightful place in society. Of course, if we choose to stay behind and don’t lend ourselves to flavor of change, that which we known, will be considered eccentrically obsolete.No matter what absolute position one decides to take, nothing in regards to culture is morally absolute. White and black thinking at best discriminates the chance to move beyond the epitaph assigned to participation in a specified culture. Even culture itself adapts. In other words, the novel Everything Bad is Good for You, by Steven Johnson is a question, posed to challenge the reader, as to how moral and ethical judgments are made and settled upon as value systems of focalizing on cultural paraphernalia. The book is especially helpful to address the eradication of assigning judgment. Once judgment is assigned, stereotypes can be labeled for what they are: undoubtedly limiting and culturally biased.
    • 4/5
      It's about time someone wrote a view in opposition to continuous reactionary stance that every new trend is bad for our future. Steven Johnson is effective in this work because he's balanced yet unapologetic. For every criticism we can make about video games relative to time spent reading, we can also find a plus. Video games require logical thought. They train quick decision making. Increasingly, they foster new relationships and teach communication. Reading has it's place, but it's passive and isolating. Johnson show similar advantages about Dungeons & Dragons and modern TV. Compare the complexity of Lost or 24 with that of the top hits of the 1970s. This book makes and important point, and it does it in a compact, enjoyable format.
    • 4/5
      I had both a personal and professional interest in this book. The value of pop culture has always been debated in libraries, and video games in particular are a very hot, contentious topic in the field right now. The arguments here were easy to follow even though I'm only familiar with most of his examples by reputation. Probably reversing most of the readers, I watched Dallas and Hill Street Blues back in the day, but have never seen ER, 24, or any reality series. I've played paper/dice D&D and Tetris but not Zelda or GTA. But the models were still perfectly clear. I think it made a lot of sense to switch the impact of pop culture from an arts and culture focus to a math and science focus. The neurological arguments were pretty interesting. I don't think most parents are willing to follow his advice that it's best to expose children to the most complex storylines available regardless of the ethical messages. But this was about brain development, not moral development. Although there was the redemptive idea of reality tv increasing viewers' emotional intelligence. The overall tone wasn't smarmy at all, but the jacket photo instantly made me want to punch him in the nose.
    • 4/5
      Another captivating book by Steven Johnson. Whether he's writing about ant colonies, brains, sidewalks, sewers, social networks or chaos theory, he has a way of drawing you in by making connections between wide ranging subjects and contemporary takes on the topic. I now have new-found respect for reality TV shows--i had always suspected that there was something more to the shows besides its surface prurient content, but it's the milliseconds of raw emotions that sometimes escapes and shows from people's faces during the show that fascinates and draws people in. If it's true as neuroscience research says, that we are drawn to "faces" and if our mirror neurons can be triggered by other people's emotions, then maybe we should begin to look at other ways of using reality shows...I also had no idea of all the websites--the "metacommentary" that goes on around these shows and other tv shows. It shows how people are really talking about and thinking about pop culture in ways and numbers never conceived of before in history. Johnson makes the point that there are many more hours of metacommentary than there is actual hours in the show! Whether people are writing about it (blogs) or merely reading about it. I, myself, found myself drawn to this metacommentary world after discovering what I've been missing in the TV world when I happened on 2 series i found in the library--the new Battlestar Galactica and David Simon & Ed Burns' The Wire series. If TV can be this good, maybe I should return to watching tv! Johnson devotes a portion of the book about the increasing complexity of tv shows in its use of multiple narrative threads and language/dialogue that is not necessarily explained to the viewer. Instead, you're immediately immersed into their worlds. I thought The Wire was unique in that respect, until I read about other tv series that uses the same device. Also, I was impressed by the fact that people are buying the dvd series and thus watching and re-watching tv series which was never done before. And that, in fact, that this rolling audience in time & space, greatly outnumbers the viewers that watch the series in its original time slot. In sum, I always learn so much when i read Steven Johnson, even when I think I already knew "enough" about the topic, he still surprises. Smart guy.
    • 3/5
      A worthy addition to my library -- investigates the impact of the mass media, such as TV, movies, and video games, on consumers from a standpoint of their increasing complexity rather than their morality.
    • 4/5
      This is one I'm glad I own b/c I'll probably want to reread it in the future. Good reference book for why I'll hold gaming programs in my library.
    • 5/5
      After hearing laments of "kids today" from practically everyone, this book was -- for me at least -- something of a revelation. Johnson does a great job debunking the myths surrounding television, movies, video games, and the like. Many cultural critics compare today's popular culture with the classics and find contemporary culture sorely lacking. The problem with this is that it's not comparing apples to apples. Comparing Shakespeare to Halo 3 is hardly fair. Johnson instead compares our popular culture to the popular culture of the past. And this is his most telling point. Our kids consume some pretty sophisticated stuff. When I compare "kids today" with kids of my generation, I'm pretty impressed with how kids are today and this book supplies some solid supporting evidence.
    • 4/5
      I like the neuroscience behind this book. The idea that games are actually making society smarter means that I should look to create somewhat challenging (but fun) interfaces for my web applications.Perhaps ironically, this book about how new media is not necessarily a "step-down" from old media (like books) has given me some insight into books:*The argument that unstructured games give the player an opportunity to explore the virtual world reminds me alot of my 50-books-in-a-year quest. I've made my hobby of reading into a game that has just enough structure to make it feel rewarding.*In the endnotes of the book, the author says that he's noticed more books that are bridging science and the humanities (Gladwell's books, the author's books). I think he's right, and I think that these are the books that I enjoy reading the most.
    • 4/5
      The author has a very interesting premise-popular culture is making us smarter. Or rather, the best of pop culture is allowing our brains to develop more and varied synapses by making us draw connections, remember plot lines, and make inferences. I had a hard time getting into the book, but it was still informative and insightful. I found myself arguing with the author frequently. Unlike most times this happens, the author seemed to anticipate my arguments and did an excellent job of answering my arguments. An excellent read for those of us who are tired of hearing about how we're getting dumber-I wish more time was spent addressing how to bring this new way of thinking in line with old ways of thinking and teaching. However, it did little to answer my disdain over how everything has to be edutainment now, rather than actual learning. That, I suppose, is saved for another book.
    • 3/5
      "Everything bad is good for you" - by Steven JohnsonInteresting book - it argues that, far from dumbing us down collectively, popular culture (games, TV drama, even reality TV) has become more complex, more challenging, and is probably responsible for what he calls the "Flynn" effect, that is the raising of the average in IQ across all demographics.It really deserves to be read - the graphic illustration of the increasing complexity from Dragnet to Starsky&Hutch to Hill Street Blues to The Sopranos is worth the price of the book alone. Hey, anybody who goes on for so long about HSB and how revolutionary it is deserved to sell books.Some of its arguments are - yes, playing online games is not like reading books, but this means that they two activities cannot really be compared: the cognitive stimulation of computer games is not in the plot or in the characterisation but in how it forces the player to be inventive in probing the game structure, and exercise and build up their problem-solving skills.Fruition of popular content has gone from "lowest common denominator" being the winning selling strategy (ie when tv series were aired at one fixed slot and there were no repeats, on demands on vcr) to "depths of layers and addicted albeit smaller audiences" being the winning profit-making model - because content is repeatable, and you sell DVDs that people are induced to buy if the series withstands repeated viewings.All very interesting and I highly reccomend it, with only two minor whines:a. It's a slim book, and there is a lot of repetition. One thing probably has to do with the other. Especially at the beginning (before I started giving myself permission to skip) I found myself muttering, yes, yes, this is the THIRD TIME you're telling me this, what do you think I am, stupid? On the up side, it's a really easy and engaging read.b. The thought kept going through my head: ok, if Americans are all getting collectively so much smarter, how come they keep voting for what is, to the eyes of any person with an ounce of brainpower, a brain-damaged control-freak incompetent?I think the review on Pandagon of this book points out that there is very little discussion of how this raising of the IQ plays across class divisions; that might be a factor (not many X-box and cable subscriptions in the sticks, I suppose). Another might be that highly conservative demographics are not much in the markets either for World of Warcraft of the Sopranos, and indeed part of the homeschooling movement is aimed a preventing the "corrupting" influence of popular culture to reach the blessed minds of the little innocent dumb fucks.Or maybe it's just a very fascinating theory that happens to be wrong.
    • 4/5
      This book is a fascinating read on how pop culture - even shows like the Apprentice - are helping our culture. Some of the arguments were old news, but the book was well written and explained the points well.
    • 4/5
      An analysis of the ways in which popular culture is actully moving towards greater complexity and a higher lowest common denominator. Covers video games, TV (both drama and reality), movies, and the internet. Contrasts interestingly with Neal Stephenson's take on popular culture (morlocks who read and understand how things work vs. eloi who just steep in the culture). Interesting to me was the mention of the Flynn Effect (that unnormalized IQ score increase over time (I need to read more about this)) and its particularly large impact on the lower and middle groups in IQ testing and not so much on the IQ elites . Combine with a dash of Infotopia's (by Cass Sustein) view of the increasing use of products of many minds and you've got a surpisingly positive take on western culture.
    • 4/5
      Breezy book making what essentially amounts to a three-point argument: that video games engage mental skills such as problem-solving and pattern recognition, that a lot of contemporary TV indulges in fairly complex narrative strategies, and that online discourse rewards writing skills and in-depth thinking. I'm pretty sympathetic to these arguments, so the book's conclusions felt a bit foregone to me, although certain examples felt freshly cogent (the diagrams of character networks in a show like 24, for instance).
    • 4/5
      Interesting thought piece suggesting that video games, TV and other frequently demonized “junk media” is actually more beneficial than you might think. For example, video games force you to learn rules as you go (compared to, say, chess where you know all the rules in advance), while TV shows today are far more complicated than 30 years ago because they force you to follow multiple threads, a dozen characters and an ongoing story arc. Good ammo for the next time yr local politician goes on a censorship kick to “save the children”.
    • 3/5
      Basically, take the title, remove the word "everything" and replace it with TV, movies, gaming, and the Internet, and you have the premise of the book. Also replace the phrase "good for you" with "makes you smarter." Johnson's basic premise (that he proves) is that today's media is more intellectually stimulating that the media in previous generations.What he doesn't cover is if that more intellectual media is also more morally bankrupt.