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More copies of this ISBNThis title in other editionsEverything Bad Is Good for You: How Today's Popular Culture Is Actually Making Us Smarterby Steven Johnson
Review-A-Day"[A]t first, Johnson's argument does sound as shocking as if your doctor had advised you to eat more donuts and, for God's sake, to try and stay away from spinach. But Johnson is a forceful writer, and he makes a good case; his book is an elegant work of argumentation, the kind in which the author anticipates your silent challenges to his ideas and hospitably tucks you in, quickly bringing you around to his side." Farhad Manjoo, Salon.com (read the entire Salon.com review) Synopses & ReviewsPublisher Comments: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 prominent 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, Johnson argues 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, Johnson acknowledges, nor should it aspire to be — and, in fact, video games, from Tetris to The Sims to Grand Theft Auto, have been shown to raise IQ scores and develop cognitive abilities that can't be learned from books. Likewise, successful television, when examined closely and taken seriously, reveals surprising narrative sophistication and intellectual demands. Startling, provocative, and endlessly engaging, Everything Bad Is Good for You is a hopeful and spirited account of contemporary culture. Elegantly and convincingly, Johnson demonstrates that our culture is not declining but changing — in exciting and stimulating ways we'd do well to understand. You will never regard the glow of the video game or television screen the same way again. Review:"Worried about how much time your children spend playing video games? Don't be, advises Johnson — not only are they learning valuable problem-solving skills, they'd probably do better on an IQ test than you or your parents could at their age. Go ahead and let them watch more television, too, since even reality shows can function as 'elaborately staged group psychology experiments' to stimulate rather than pacify the brain. With the same winning combination of personal revelation and friendly scientific explanation he displayed in last year's Mind Wide Open, Johnson shatters the conventional wisdom about pop culture as pabulum, showing how video games, television shows and movies have become increasingly complex. Furthermore, he says, consumers are drawn specifically to those products that require the most mental engagement, from small children who can't get enough of their favorite Disney DVDs to adults who find new layers of meaning with each repeated viewing of Seinfeld. Johnson lays out a strong case that what we do for fun is just as educational in its way as what we study in the classroom (although it's still worthwhile to encourage good reading habits, too). There's an important message here for every parent — one they should hear from the source before savvy kids (especially teens) try to take advantage of it." Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)
Review:"[A] fascinating book....Highly recommended..." Library Journal
Review:"Stimulating, iconoclastic, and strikingly original." Atlantic Monthly
Review:"[Johnson] makes the reader feel smart by providing new tools with which to understand technology." Wired
Review:"Brisk, witty...and bolstered with research....Indispensable." Time
Review:"Everything Bad Is Good for You is a lucid tour of the pop-culture landscape, and Johnson makes a sometimes rambling but altogether lively guide." Boston Globe
Review:"Perhaps the best metaphor for this book is one the author would be proud of: a many-tiered video game. You're a little wary of the experience, but it's easy to get swept up in. And it's strangely satisfying to complete." Chicago Tribune
Review:"Wonderfully entertaining....Johnson proposes that what is making us smarter is precisely what we thought was making us dumber: popular culture." Malcolm Gladwell, The New Yorker
Review:"Whether or not Everything Bad is correct, it is a brilliant speculation..." Mother Jones
Review:"Revelatory...Daring...Finally, an intellectual who doesn't think we're headed down the toilet!" Washington Post Book World
Review:"Persuasive...The old dogs won't be able to rest as easily once they've read Everything Bad is Good for You, Steven Johnson's elegant polemic....It's almost impossible not to agree with him." Walter Kirn, The New York Times Book Review
Review:"Johnson paints a convincing and literate portrait, and he shows himself to be a master of many disciplines, which deepens the well of his credibility." San Francisco Chronicle
Review:"Everything Bad Is Good for You anticipates and refutes nearly every likely claim, building a convincing case that media have become more complex and thus make our minds work harder." Cleveland Plain Dealer
Review:"Sophisticated...nimble...strangely satisfying." Newsday
Synopsis:From the bestselling author of Mind Wide Open comes a groundbreaking assessment of popular culture as it's never been considered before: through the lens of intelligence.
Synopsis: Combining the deft social analysis of Where Good Ideas Come From with the optimistic arguments of Everything Bad Is Good For You, New York Times bestselling author Steven Johnsons Future Perfect makes the case that a new model of political change is on the rise, transforming everything from local governments to classrooms, from protest movements to health care. Johnson paints a compelling portrait of this new political worldview — influenced by the success and interconnectedness of the Internet, by peer networks, but not dependent on high-tech solutions — that breaks with the conventional categories of liberal or conservative, public vs. private thinking.
With his acclaimed gift for multi-disciplinary storytelling and big idea books, Johnson explores this new vision of progress through a series of fascinating narratives: from the “miracle on the Hudson” to the planning of the French railway system; from the battle against malnutrition in Vietnam to a mysterious outbreak of strange smells in downtown Manhattan; from underground music video artists to the invention of the Internet itself.
At a time when the conventional wisdom holds that the political system is hopelessly gridlocked with old ideas, Future Perfect makes the timely and inspiring case that progress is still possible, and that innovative strategies are on the rise. This is a hopeful, affirmative outlook for the future, from one of the most brilliant and inspiring visionaries of contemporary culture. Synopsis: Combining the deft social analysis of Where Good Ideas Come From with the optimistic arguments of Everything Bad Is Good for You, New York Times bestselling author and one of the most inspiring visionaries of contemporary culture, Steven Johnson, maps the ways a connected world will be both different and better.
Steven Johnson proposes that a new model of political change is on the rise transforming everything from local government to classrooms to health care. Its a compelling new political worldview that breaks with traditional categories of liberal or conservative thinking. Johnson explores this innovative vision through a series of fascinating narratives: from the “Miracle on the Hudson” to the planning of the French railway system; from the battle against malnutrition in Vietnam to a mysterious outbreak of strange smells in downtown Manhattan; from underground music video artists to the invention of the Internet itself. At a time when the conventional wisdom holds that the political system is hopelessly gridlocked with old ideas, Future Perfect makes the timely and uplifting case that progress is still possible.
About the AuthorSteven Johnson's three previous books are the New York Times bestseller Mind Wide Open: Your Brain and the Neuroscience of Everyday Life; Emergence: The Connected Lives of Ants, Brains, Cities, and Software; and Interface Culture: How New Technology Transforms the Way We Create and Communicate. Cofounder of the online magazine FEED, Johnson currently writes the "Emerging Technology" column for Discover, is a contributing editor to Wired, writes regularly for Slate and the New York Times Magazine, and lectures widely.
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