Chai’s Reviews > Everything Bad is Good for You: How Today's Popular Culture is Actually Making Us Smarter > Status Update

A quick dive into the complexity of the Internet (building social connections, probing complex software tools..) + film which is a counter-argument to the writer's arguments. It is however an older form of media, and is limited in time so compared to tv series, It doesn't have enough time to complexify plots and characters.

Comedy series and how the punchline can last for years (case of Mrs Phalange in Friends etc), which demands a lot of the effort from the viewer. The jokes can also require a certain wide pop culture.
Started discussing reality programming

Comparison of old tv with current tv : multithreading, texture not being the core of the show (cc ER and the numerous medical terms used not being an obstacle to the viewer keeping in track with the plot)

Okay, Johnson made three great points so far.
1- If video games had existed before the introduction of literature, we would've reacted to the culture switch the same way we did with the subject of video games.
2 - The greatest of all pedagogical fallacies is the notion that a person learns only the particular thing he is studying at the time (applies to video games)
3 - Benefits of gaming : probing and telescoping

I don't know if I'm just on a very negative streak here where I incessantly criticize everything, but I'm worried that Johnson's ideas are just your run of the mill 'unique' ideas with no real strong basis. I'm not convinced of this whole sleeper curve thing because it's clear as day that the media HAS dumbed us down. 15 years after this book was published, I don't think the author would still stand by his words.