Everything Bad Is Good For You: How Today's Popular Culture Is Actually Making Us Smarter

Description

Forget everything you've ever read about the age of dumbed-down, instant-gratification culture. In this provocative, unfailingly intelligent, thoroughly researched, and surprisingly convincing big idea book, Steven Johnson draws from fields as diverse as neuroscience, economics, and media theory to argue that the pop culture we soak in every day--from Lord of the Rings to Grand Theft Auto to The Simpsons--has been growing more sophisticated with each passing year, and, far from rotting our brains, is actually posing new cognitive challenges that are actually making our minds measurably sharper. After reading "Everything Bad is Good for You," you will never regard the glow of the video game or television screen the same way again. With a new afterword by the author. Steven Johnson's newest book, "Future Perfect," is now available from Riverhead Books.

Author description

Steven Johnson is the author of seven bestsellers, including "Where Good Ideas Come From," "The Invention of Air," "The Ghost Map," and "Everything Bad Is Good for You," and is the editor of the anthology "The Innovator's Cookbook." He is the founder of a variety of influential websites--most recently, outside.in--and writes for "Time," "Wired," "The New York Times," and "The Wall Street Journal." He lives in Marin County, California, with his wife and three sons.