Everything Bad is Good for You by Steven Johnson

* From what you've read (read first), is Popular culture (games, tv, film) just a method to "sophisticatedly deliver stupidity" (paraphrasing George Will)

After the Johnson reading I feel much better about many of what I previously deemed as my guilty pleasures. I do watch a number of reality shows on a regular basis such as Survivor, Top Chef, Project Runway, and The Secret Millionaire (new!) to name a few. I believe I have watched at least one episode of almost every reality show that has hit the airs. I thought it was sad that I was the go to gal of my group of friends to catch up on missed episodes, find out the premise of a new show on air, or get the full story from some comment that was made on the morning radio show or perhaps some posting on TMZ. However, not only I am the go to gal on all things reality, I am also a huge fan of Lost and Heroes. I really enjoy following the multi-layer of threads from episode to epsiode and season to season trying to decode the mysteries of the island or origin of their super powers for that matter.I have even been known to read the blogs and add my comments after certain pinnacle shows.

Working in the world of academia, I was not proud of the fact that I devoted so much time to what the public (as I knew) it deemed as utter nonsense. But I must say, I now have shed a few layers of shame as Johnson asserts its not the content that matters, but what is important is the problem solving skills and cognitive workout one receives. I felt many of the points Johnson made regarding the gaming world were extremely insightful. Although I wouldn't consider myself an avid gamer today, I was a Nintendo player as a child Super Mario Brothers and Zelda were the games of my day :) The probing & telescoping skills described by Johnson very closely resembled my gaming experience. Wandering though the forest in the Zelda game aimlessly firing at random bushes hoping to find a new weapon or door to a hidden room. As I probed along in the game I finally began to understand the game a bit more realizing there were various weapons one can retrieve, and a number of "bosses" to destroy which fits Johnson's "telescoping" technique. But I must say I never did master it, only experiencing minimal success with the game.

This probing and telescoping represents a method of participatory thinking and with a built in reward system that creates mass appeal, it seems like a win win situation. Unfortunately, with critics like George Will it is easy to take aim at targets of mass appeal focusing on simply the content and not the real skills and collateral learning that are intrinsically involved with the gaming world. Johnson also translates this interactive complexity to the world of television, but on a much smaller level. Many of todays most popular shows are built on multilayer structures where viewers must connect messages or plots from previous shows or season to the present in order to understand the big picture. In some multi layered structures, the knowledge drawn upon may be from outside the show perhaps a current event, movie, or some other pop culture tidbit.

Unlike some shows of the past like, I Love Lucy, where the viewer would sit back and watch, this new multi layered structure is allowing for more viewer participation. After the last episode of Lost I ran to the message boards to see what other fans may have grasped from the show, and get their thoughts on the nail bitting ending :) I myself am dying to know what exactly happened to the island, how can an island disappear?? As you may have gathered by now, I could write pages on the topic but I digress to the following point made by Johnson which nicely addresses George Will's sentiments. If Will believes that pop culture"sophisticatedly delivers stupidity" in regards to the content then lets examine the content of a basic math word problem.

Joshua has 22 socks in his drawer. Twelve of the socks are white. The rest are
green. How many pairs of green socks does Joshua have?

Would George Will feel a math problem "sophisticatedly delivers stupidity" as well? It is clear the content of this math problem is not intellectually stimulating nor does it convey a greater message of good. Aren't the skills necessary in solving this math problem what's most important?