Popular Culture: Not So Bad After All

Popular Culture has the ability to strengthen or weaken our minds. This depends on how well we interpret the information that is portrayed to us. In the book, “Everything Bad Is Good For You,” Steven Johnson explains the concept of the Sleeper Curve. He believes that mass entertainment in the form of video games, television, film, internet, etc has the potential to educate people. Steven Johnson goes into detail about IQ scores. His main point is that the people in our society are more intelligent than people in past generations. In my opinion, this shows that the media isn’t as bad for us as everyone makes it out to be. As technology advances, people get more and more sucked in to popular culture, yet our society is still advancing in the intelligence department. Granted, this has a lot to do with the school trends and our education system, but at least the media isn’t making us less intelligent than past generations. In order to become aware of how popular culture has the potential to educate us, I thought Steven Johnson’s analysis on video games and television shows was the most influential and enlightening.

Most people believe that video games are filled with violence and sex, but in actuality video games have the ability to educate young minds. Video games help with eye-hand coordination and with problem solving strategies. Some of the games are so difficult that people can spend hours trying to “beat,” just one level. Steven Johnson compares books to video games to help his reader understand that video games aren’t as bad as people make them seem. Even though video games will never be as significant as books are, in the way they educate the mind, video games give people the aptitude to use their imagination. According to Mary Schlimme, “Video games can be utilized to benefit players in several ways, such as through education about important topics...games can provide a context in which participants can discuss scenarios and outcomes in order to facilitate their understanding of important concepts.” As you can see, Steven Johnson is not the only person to agree with the fact that video games have the ability to educate the mind. Even though video games are sometimes looked at as being anti-social and addicting, the historical advancement that video games has undergone, gives people helpful skills for everyday life and can give students the idea that learning can be fun.

“The interactive nature of games means they will inevitably require more decision making than passive forms like television of film.” (Johnson 62) Just as games have increased people’s cognitive way of thinking so has television. When looking at the historical trends of television, shows like Mary Tyler Moore has the purpose to entertain, while TV shows today require you to think more and to evaluate what is actually going on. Steven Johnson states that shows from previous generations follow one plot, with one or two main characters, and a conclusion at the end of the episode. Shows on television today are more complicated, have many main characters, and many different storylines through out one episode. The end of the episode doesn’t always reach a conclusion. Being that the shows are more complicated, it requires more thinking and effort from the watcher. There is much more reality television today, than there was in the past. I think reality television is entertaining in the way that it is “unpredictable,” yet it is almost impossible to get any factual information from watching these reality shows. Watching a few hours of television is normal in order to escape reality, however, when children are sitting in front of the television for hours and hours on end, a real problem evolves. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), kids in the United States watch about 4 hours of TV a day - even though the AAP guidelines say children older than 2 should watch no more than 1 to 2 hours a day of quality programming.” In conclusion, I admit that I do watch shows like “That Girl,” and “I Love Lucy,” so it is easy to compare the shows from today’s generation to past generations. In my opinion, it is very evident to see how much these shows have changed. I believe that shows such as CSI, House and even Oprah are more influential than the older sitcoms.

After reading the book, “Everything Bad is Good For you,” by Steven Johnson, I have come to realize that students learn more useful and effective skills through books and educators, but since people are so dependant on popular culture, I think that it is important for popular culture to have more than one purpose. The main purpose of popular culture is to entertain. Being that our society gets sucked into spending an abnormal amount of time watching, listening, and playing with popular culture, it is helpful for our society to be educated and entertained simultaneously.