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Author Johnson, Steven, 1968-

Title Everything bad is good for you : how today's popular culture is actually making us smarter / Steven Johnson ; [with a new afterword by the author].

Imprint New York : Riverhead Books, 2006.

Copies

Location Call No. OPAC Message Status
 Axe 3rd Floor Stacks  306.0973 J637e 2006    ---  Available
1 copy being processed for Axe Acquisitions Order.
Edition 1st Riverhead trade pbk. ed.
Description xvi, 254 pages : illustrations ; 21 cm
text txt rdacontent
unmediated n rdamedia
volume nc rdacarrier
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages 212-250).
Summary The $10 billion video gaming industry is now the second-largest segment of the entertainment industry in the United States, outstripping film and far surpassing books. Reality television shows featuring silicone-stuffed CEO wannabes and bug-eating adrenaline junkies dominate the ratings. But social and cultural critic Steven Johnson argues that our popular culture has never been smarter. Drawing from fields as diverse as neuroscience, economics, and literary theory, the author contends that the junk culture we're so eager to dismiss is in fact making us more intelligent. A video game will never be a book nor should it aspire to be. In fact, video games -- from Tetris to the Sims to Grand Theft Auto -- have been shown develop cognitive abilities that can't be learned from books, as well as to raise IQ scores. Likewise, successful television, when examined closely and taken seriously, reveals surprising narrative sophistication and intellectual demands. This book is a hopeful and spirited account of contemporary culture. The author demonstrates that our culture is not declining but changing in exciting and stimulating ways we'd do well to understand.
Contents Introduction : the sleeper curve -- Part one -- Part two -- Notes on further reading -- Notes -- Acknowledgments.
Subject Popular culture.
Intellect.
Intellect. (OCoLC)fst00975732
Popular culture. (OCoLC)fst01071344
ISBN 1594481946 (pbk.)
9781594481949 (pbk.)

 
    
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