i wanted to throw this book against a wall, many, many times while reading it.

my main problem with the book is the lack of data to support the hypothesis that johnson argues. if it were simply a polemic arguing that media has become more complex, and that complexity warrants closer inspection and not dismissal, i'd forgive it.

however, johnson begins the book by admitting that he isn't a scientist and then goes on to try to support his claims with scientific data. i'm not a scientist either, but trying to correlate the general trend of rising IQs over the past fifty years to the growing complexity of media is absurd. he notes that improved education and nutrition could also be responsible for this trend, but he still uses the trend in an anecdotal way to support his hypothesis.