First heard about this on NPR's Morning Edition in May; then Johnson appeared on The Daily Show early in June. I'd read his Mind Wide Open a month or two ago & really enjoyed it, so I put this book on hold at the library.

Johnson's basic theory is that popular culture has gotten more complex and challenging over the last few decades, and our consumption of such has assisted us with problem solving and dealing with complex relationships, referring to this as the Sleeper Curve. He also references the Flynn Effect - a study that shows an increase of approximately 13 IQ points in the average American population over the last 50 years.

In the gaming world, the most popular games require strategy, forethought and probing skills. Users spend time learning not only the interface and the underlying rules, they also have to put together a set of goals in order to finish the game successfully. He references Grand Theft Auto as well as the Sims as examples of terrifically complex worlds, comparing game guides to Cliff Notes for literary works.

In terms of television - he cites the larger number of characters and multi-episode plots as elements that challenge our social intelligence. Shows intended for syndication, such as Seinfeld or The Simpsons are expected and encouraged to be more complex, so as to reward multiple viewings.

Johnson does a little handwaving over the topic of sex & violence in the media, coming to the conclusion that since crime has generally declined over the past decade, maybe the media is not as big as influence as we thought. I would have liked to have seen more of an exploration of that topic. He wraps up the book by pointing out how the technology has influenced the Sleeper Curve - learning new technologies at a much higher rate than that of previous generations. While popular media may not necessarily increase our knowledge of facts, Johnson believes it gives us the tools we need to learn more efficiently and interact in a social network more effectively.

Recommended to anyone interested in the sociological aspects of media.

Notes and Quotes
* Reading = exercising the mind vs TV/Movies = acquiring info
* Game rewards = fractal -- each scale contains its own set of rewards.
* 2 important game skills - probing (learning about the environment, "what if...") and telescoping (expanding & contracting a set of goals).
* "continuous partial attention" - most forms of multitasking
* Reality shows test emotional IQ, social intelligence & body language assessment.
* Internet - challenges thru being participatory, learning new interfaces & providing new channels for social interaction
* The number of active bloggers equals roughly the number of prime-time TV viewers.
* Flynn Effect - most pronounced in fluid intelligence (problem-solving, sequencing & pattern recognition)
Also more pronounced in the middle region of the population - genius of today not appreciably smarter than geniuses of yesteryear.
* "The regime of competence" - most effective learning occurs on the outer edges of the learner's competence.
* "Slacker" theory of brain function (McLuhan, Postman et. al) - pretty much disproven by neuroscience.
* Attention span issues may still be a problem if media is not interactive - cognitive immersion requires physical immersion.
* Least Objectionable Programming (older model) < Most Repeatable Programming (current model)


* "The dirty little secret of gaming is how much time you spend not having fun."
* "No one complains about the simplistic, militaristic plot of chess ("It always ends the same way!") ... you don't go to a gym because you're interested in learning how to operate a Stairmaster."
* "Reality shows... are in a sense, elaborately staged group psychology experiments."
* "It's hard to remember that television was a pure present-tense medium for half of its existence."
* "The true test should be whether a given show engages or sedates the mind."