Everything Bad is Good For You Steven Johnson

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 21 st 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:

• 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, threedimensional 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 21 st 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.

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

Reality Shows • What make them so popular? • • Johnson assertively states that in the game world you are only dealing with real people through the connection of channels with 3 D graphics. Different from most reality shows, which expose actual people sharing limited spaces for months at the same time, and there contact with the outside world is limited. The pioneering reality show was MTV’s The Real World, was in fact one of the most viewed shows of the year when it was launched. This program didn’t need any type of contest nor a fabulous prize to attract its viewers, the only thing it did was join a group of people (with different types of personalities), in a new space, and forced them to interact with one another. Johnson is surely right about the massive popularity of reality shows because, as he may not be aware, recent studies have shown that 70% of people in the USA between the ages of 18 and 30 say they like/love reality TV shows. Reality shows are seen for what the integrants have to overcome (fights, gossips, sex, embarrassment) as they are forced to interact with one another.

• Steven Johnson affirms that you cant surf the Web for more than a few minutes without encountering someone complaining about the surge in sex and violence on TV. • I disagree with the fact that you will consistently find something or someone in the Web which is complaining about the surge in sex and violence on TV. Its all about for what your using a computer. • For example in my case, I’ve never encountered anything or anyone in the Web complaining about the surge in sex and violence on TV. Because I only use my computer for academic purposes, checking Facebook or watching basketball games highlights.

Its amazing how I can do my Ap Language homework, listen to my favorite music, download last nights Bulls game and chat on facebook. (ALL AT THE SAME TIME WITH THE SAME IMPLEMENT. )

Multiple threading is the most acclaimed structural convention of modern computer programming, as thought by Johnson. I agree that Multiple threading is the most acclaimed structural convention of modern computer programming. Everyone around the World is able to use computers that have multithreading hardware support, which efficiently execute multiple threads (tasks).

Kids = Grownups • The author suggests that “kids are forced to think like grownups” (196). Johnson claims that the main facts forcing kids to think as grownups are: analyzing complex social networks, managing resources, tracking subtle narrative intertwinings and recognizing long-term patterns. Parallel to this, the author states that grownups, in turn, get to learn from kids. • I agree that kids are sometimes forced to think like adults, and that grownups also learn from kids. This point needs emphasizing due to the common belief that grownups must decode each new technological gadget used by kids in order to discover the intellectual rewards of play. Example on next slide ; )

What should parents do? • Steven Johnson reminds us that “parents should see this as an opportunity, not as a crisis. ” Analogous to this, he reinforces the argument by stating that smart culture is no longer something you can force your kids to ingest, like green vegetables. It’s simple and just something you share. • Johnson’s theory of parents learning from kids by decoding each new technological wave is extremely useful because encourages parents to be open to trying new things rather than to distrust ‘pop’ culture.

Is this guy crazy? • “Games and television shows and films have cognitive rewards that we should better understand value, ” as stated by Johnson. Video games force you to make decisions, to choose, to prioritize. Kids must do this because they are forced to weigh evidence, analyze situations, consult long term goals, and finally decide. • I agree that Everything Bad Is Good For You. My experience as a consistent user of modern technology has proven to me that if we change our criteria, used to determine what really is “pop culture”, we will be able to realize that this culture is genuinely nourishing our brains. TED: Next slide

Steven Johnson Tom Chatfield Steven Johnson describes the web to be like a city: built by many people, completely controlled by no one, intricately interconnected and yet functioning as many independent parts. While disaster strikes in one place, elsewhere, life goes on. http: //www. ted. com/talks/lang/en/steven_johnson_on_the_web_as_a_cit y. html We're bringing gameplay into more aspects of our lives, spending countless hours -- and real money -- exploring virtual worlds for imaginary treasures. Why? As Tom Chatfield shows, games are perfectly tuned to dole out rewards that engage the brain and keep us questing for more. http: //www. ted. com/talks/lang/en/tom_chatfield_7_ways_games_ reward_the_brain. html

Bibliography • Everything Bad is Good For You By: Steven Johnson