Everything Bad Is Good for You: How Popular Culture Is Making Us Smarter (Allen Lane) (Taschenbuch) von Steven Johnson   Synopsis: Tune in, turn on and get smarter. "The Simpsons", "Desperate Housewives", "The Apprentice", "The Sopranos", "Grand Theft Auto": We're constantly being told that popular culture is just mindless entertainment. But, as Steven Johnson shows, it's actually making us more intelligent. Here he puts forward a radical alternative to the endless complaints about reality TV, throwaway movies and violent video games. He shows that mass culture is actually more sophisticated and challenging than ever before. When we focus on what our minds have to do to process its complex, multilayered messages, it becomes clear that it's not dumbing us down but smartening us up. Rezensionen: In his fourth book,Everything Bad Is Good for You, iconoclastic science writer Steven Johnson (who used himself as a test subject for the latest neurological technology in his last book,Mind Wide Open) takes on one of the most widely held preconceptions of the postmodern world--the belief that video games, television shows, and other forms of popular entertainment are detrimental to Americans' cognitive and moral development.Everything Goodbuilds a case to the contrary that is engaging, thorough, and ultimately convincing. The heart of Johnson's argument is something called the Sleeper Curve--a universe of popular entertainment that trends, intellectually speaking, ever upward, so that today's pop-culture consumer has to do more "cognitive work"--making snap decisions and coming up with long-term strategies in role-playing video games, for example, or mastering new virtual environments on the Internet-- than ever before. Johnson makes a compelling case that even today's least nutritional TV junk food?theJoe Millionaires andSurvivors so commonly derided as evidence of America's cultural decline--is more complex and stimulating, in terms of plot complexity and the amount of external information viewers need to understand them, than theLove Boats andI Love Lucys that preceded it. When it comes to television, even (perhaps especially) crappy television, Johnson argues, "the content is less interesting than the cognitive work the show elicits from your mind." Johnson's work has been controversial, as befits a writer willing to challenge wisdom so conventional it has ossified into accepted truth. But even the most skeptical readers should be captivated by the intriguing questions Johnson raises, whether or not they choose to accept his answers.--Erica C. Barnett-- Dieser Text bezieht sich auf eine andere Ausgabe:Gebundene Ausgabe © 1998-2001 Amazon.com, Inc. und Tochtergesellschaften Alle Rezensionen ansehen...   Angebote zu  Bad ,  Good ,  Popular  ab 1 Euro! Siehe auch folgende Artikel: Die neue Intelligenz. Warum wir durch Computerspiele und TV klüger werden von Steven Johnson Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide von Henry Jenkins Mind Wide Open: Your Brain and the Neuroscience of Everyday Life von Steven Johnson Emergence: The Connected Lives of Ants, Brains, Cities, and Software von Steven Johnson Mehr zu  Pop Culture,  Social Sciences Home ...,    Angebote ansehen ...,    Begleitseite ... Herausgeber dieser Seite ist DomainLoc.com GmbH - Partner von Amazon.de Copyright © DomainLoc.com GmbH (Impressum)