{"id":688,"date":"2005-05-05T09:09:16","date_gmt":"2005-05-05T16:09:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp\/2005\/05\/well_there_goes_that_argument\/"},"modified":"2005-05-05T09:09:16","modified_gmt":"2005-05-05T16:09:16","slug":"well_there_goes_that_argument","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/main\/well_there_goes_that_argument.php","title":{"rendered":"Well, there goes THAT argument"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Technology, science, and trend author Steven Johnson has a new book that strikes to the heart of a traditional argument for nonprofit culture in American communities. <i><a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/exec\/obidos\/redirect?tag=bolzcenter-20&amp;creative=9325&amp;camp=1789&amp;link_code=as2&amp;path=ASIN\/1573223077\">Everything Bad Is Good for You: How Today&#8217;s Popular Culture Is Actually Making Us Smarter<\/a><\/i> challenges the common assumption that popular culture makes us stupid, which, by extension, challenges the intellectual high ground claimed by nonprofit culture.<\/p>\n<p>As quoted in <a href=\"\nhttp:\/\/www.boston.com\/ae\/books\/articles\/2005\/05\/01\/brain_candy\/\">this <i>Boston Globe<\/i> book review<\/a>, Johnson shows a massive increase in plot complexity, interaction, and narrative style in popular culture (television, film, video games, etc.), which he claims requires and fosters a higher level of brain function:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><i><br \/>\nThe greater complexity, Johnson argues, is &#8221;creating minds that are more adept at certain kinds of problem solving.&#8221; Thus, he says, today&#8217;s pop culture is &#8221;largely a force for good: enhancing our cognitive faculties, not dumbing them down.&#8221;<br \/>\n<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>It&#8217;s an interesting issue on the heels of the RAND report, &#8221;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.wallacefoundation.org\/WF\/KnowledgeCenter\/KnowledgeTopics\/ArtsParticipation\/GiftsOfTheMuse.htm\">Gifts of the Muse<\/a>,&#8221; which explored the benefits of cultural experience (with a heavy bias toward nonprofit culture). And it&#8217;s bound to generate conversation on the blogs (as <a href=\"http:\/\/www.stevenberlinjohnson.com\/movabletype\/archives\/000250.html\">it already has<\/a>).<\/p>\n<p>Johnson wrote two of my favorite nonfiction technology\/trend books &#8212; <i><a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/exec\/obidos\/redirect?tag=bolzcenter-20&amp;creative=9325&amp;camp=1789&amp;link_code=as2&amp;path=ASIN\/0465036805\">Interface Culture<\/a><\/i> and <i><a href=\"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/readings\/000397.php\">Emergence<\/a><\/i> &#8212; so this one is high on my summer reading list&#8230;or I could just wait for the TV miniseries.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Technology, science, and trend author Steven Johnson has a new book that strikes to the heart of a traditional argument for nonprofit culture in American communities. Everything Bad Is Good for You: How Today&#8217;s Popular Culture Is Actually Making Us Smarter challenges the common assumption that popular culture makes us stupid, which, by extension, challenges [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-688","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-main","7":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/688","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=688"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/688\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=688"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=688"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=688"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}