TV Is Good For The Mind?

Overhype

from the hmmm dept

Maybe this week is the week we learn various bad habits are good. Last week we had some issues with a questionable study suggesting that emailing and text messaging made you stupid, but today we’ve already had an article suggesting the easy access to porn may have benefits for children and Steven Johnson has an excerpt from his new book Everything Bad Is Good for You: How Today’s Popular Culture Is Actually Making Us Smarter published in the NY Times focusing on how today’s TV may make people smarter than TV in the past. Again, it’s easy to raise questions about the claim — since it’s not supported (at least not in the excerpt) with any data, but just anecdotes and conjecture. However, the basic concept is that it’s much more complicated to follow plot, character and story lines in today’s television than it was in the past — and you need to be a bit more aware mentally to keep up.