Review by: De Leeuwe, Marcel (2006-11-13)

As the first reports of gaming addiction are appearing in the papers the question of what the new media bring us has become topical once again. One could easily conclude that they do us no good and lead to oversimplification, increasing violence and fleetingness. Steven Johnson, author of previous publications such as Mind Wide Open, does not assume these negative effects. In the book Everything Bad Is Good For You he shows in a humoristic, original and stimulating manner that there is much to gain from the new media. Better still, Johnson acutely explains why new media make us smarter. This contributor to Wired and New York Times Magazine, amongst others, is cited in many articles on the next generation. His quiet but engaged story makes many people, including me, queue to buy his book. Is it worth it or not?

Complexity

One of the reasons why new media make us smarter according to Johnson is the complexity of these media and the manner this cognitively challenges us. The average TV-series has become more complex over the years. In Starsky & Hutch there was one story line with a fixed pattern and an orderly number of players with superficial and one-dimensional characters. In Hill Street Blues there are several intermixed story lines and characters with depth. Modern series such as The Sopranos not only display a diversity of story lines and a further depth of the characters, but also more complex connections between the story lines, which are sometimes only picked up as much as twelve episodes later.

Reading is bad for you!

In his reflection on gaming Johnson forces us to think by issuing a ‘warning’ from a world in which books were introduced only much later than video games. "Reading books chronically understimulates the senses. Unlike the vivid, three-dimensional multimedia and rich world of gaming, which also requires physical involvement, books are simply a barren string of words on the page. This presents a limited and unbalanced challenge to our brain. Books are also tragically isolating. A reader shuts himself off from his environment and does not engage in social interaction, in contrast to gamers. But perhaps the most important danger of these books is the fact that reading is a passive activity. You can’t control the narrative, the writer sends the reader through his story in a linear fashion. Readers become a following, playing a passive role.”

He calls on the reader not to use this kind of simplification when considering the new media. Books have unique and useful characteristics. Games have other characteristics that are no less valuable.

The educational effect of games

Johnson puts much emphasis on the educational effect of games. Games provide totally new and unique opportunities through their complexity and also through unique characteristics such as social interaction and the action required from the player. The development over the past thirty years has made games (and other forms of new media) ever more challenging. Gaming also challenges different mental skills than reading does. Players now learn to ‘read’ rich media, to make choices, to connect information, enter into social interaction, to switch from the concrete to the abstract and vice versa.

With his multiple examples Johnson provides good insight into the growth of the popularity of games. He distils the characteristics, and it becomes clear to even the novice reader why and how the Netgeneration enters these virtual worlds. And yet his conclusions lack a proper basis. Research has shown that the educational effects can be difficult to predict. It is probable that the cognitive and social skills are developed, but a player can also draw the wrong conclusions and learn the wrong things. A characteristic of commercial games is that they do not have an explicit educational aim. SimCity can contribute to an insight into city planning but can also cause misconceptions. This is an issue that Johnson sidesteps.

We are getting smarter

Johnson concludes the first part of his book with the conclusion that we really are getting smarter. He tries to underpin this conclusion in the second part with research into IQ, among other things. He begins with an observation of Flynn, who has analysed data from army IQ-tests of American soldiers. From these tests Johnson indicates that the average IQ-score has increased over the years. Flynn attributes this to environmental causes. Johnson explains that these causes are not the changing diets, nor education. It is therefore caused by our 'mental diet', including games. Johnson supports this with many examples.

The question of whether these blessings compensate for the bad moral role models in games and on TV (The Sopranos, Grant Theft Auto) is parried by stating that the effect of educators is much larger and that there are many games that harbour good moral values. He concedes that games and TV are getting more and more violent, but on the other hand he sees an American society that is getting less violent. Johnson does see a role for educators, who are to change their views of games and TV-series and assess whether they fit the 'mental diet'.

In conclusion

Johnson has written an intriguing book that is, however, partly based on a gut feeling. While Mind Wide Open consisted of a search involving many scientists and provided a good overview of developments in science, the structure of this new book is more anecdotal and fragmented. Juicy, full of flavour and easily digested. It probably makes the reader smarter as well, and in any case it provides a different view of new media!

This review is originally published on the SURF E-learning Themesite http://e-learning.surf.nl