Everything Bad Is Good For You Analysis

Pop culture has been seen in the past to be a main ingredient in making our country’s I.Q. drop, or well, that the overall population is going to become dumber because of its rise. However, Malcolm Gladwell has felt differently, and decided to produce an article on how pop culture has effected the smarts of our country. In Malcolm Gladwell’s article “Brain Candy”, Gladwell effectively uses rhetorical appeals to prove his argument.

Nicholas Carr, author of the novel “The Shallows: What the internet is doing to our brains” explains in his works that media and technology is affecting the way our brain works and is used in our daily lives. Carr states, “The price we pay to assume technology’s power is alienation. The toll can be particularly high with our intellectual technologies. The tools of the mind amplify and in turn numb the most intimate, the most human, of our natural capacities - those for reason, perception, memory, emotion.”(Carr, 211) Carr continues to explain an interesting phenomena that occurred in society within the

Watching television is such a common part of contemporary society, that most Americans adopted it as a part of their daily routine and watch television for at least an hour a day. Stanley Crouch, a poet, music and cultural critic, writes: “Whenever people pretentiously and proudly announce, “I don’t watch television,” they should follow it up with “I don’t look at America either”” (Masciotra 79). Television has become a part of many people’s lives. When the mass population watches the same television shows, movies, etc. they can all relate to each other, and thus unite them as an American. We look to TV shows to see how other people like us act on-screen. Aaron Morales, the author of American Mashup: A Popular Culture Reader states: “We watch movies, visit websites, and scour online profiles, all in an effort to glean from a variety of sources those traits that we feel best suit how we identify ourselves” (Morales 65). Movie characters can change the personalities and point of views in our society. Movies can inspire and motivate a society to change its social norms. For example, The Harry Potter Series is a well-known book that is popularized over the years through television advertisements. The reason Harry Potter is special is because he is like everyone else, but he is dealing with different problems. People can relate to the aspect of the characters and

Anyone who watches the movie Idiocracy, may think that it is the stupidest movie that they have ever seen. In fact, they may think that it is so stupid, that just watching it made their IQ drop a few points. Although Idiocracy is a comedy, the director Mike Judge is warning us what our future would look like if we drive our focuses away from important things, such as education. The film Idiocracy reveals the ways in which mass media can negatively affect a culture’s intelligence. More specifically, the film shows how corporate consumerism hurts intelligence, how entertainment media hurts intelligence, but most importantly how intelligence is needed to face the challenges of the day.

     But, for most part, author feel television is 'drug'; that is corrupting today's society. Many of us fail to recognize how it has caused the decline of family rituals, the avoidance of relationships and the destruction of the family. Our addiction to this daily habit cause us to escape the real world.

In recent discussions of watching an excessive amount of television, a controversial issue has been whether it is good or bad. On the one hand, some argue that it affects our mental and physical health. From this perspective, it is clear that heavy TV watching is not beneficial. On the other hand, however, others argue that a TV exposes you to important news and different cultures. In the words of Caron Andre, one of this views main proponents; “news, current events and historical programming can help make young people more aware of other cultures and people.” According to this view, Andre believes that TV can be beneficial to the watchers. In sum, then, the issue is whether TV has positive or negative effects on the viewers.

In the paper, “Is Good Making Us Stupid?” Nicholas Carr, American author and blogger, argues that new technologies are shaping the way we think and suggest that we should not rely so much on technology. Carr begins his paper with a reference to A Space Odyssey, a 2001 film directed by Stanley Kubrick. He uses this reference to introduce the ideas that something is “tinkering” with the human brain. Many people today, including himself struggle with reading long articles. He insist that its the internet's fault. In today's time, we depend on the internet to get all out information. Nicholas Carr says “My mind now expects to take in information they way Net distributes it….”. Many people today struggle that not only the way they read is changing but also the way they think is changing as well.

In the book, The Shallows: What The Internet is Doing to Our Brains, by Nicholas Carr, they talk about ways the internet has changed the way we think and how we take in information. The internet is the space where everyone can be connected in one way or another. It has many positive effects but like anything with positive effects, it has some negative effects. The internet can be a great source of news, information, entertainment, and much more. But the way it is presented sometimes can have some negative effects on our brain. I do agree with the statement that the internet is affecting how we think and how we perceive things, but it isn’t always in the most negative way. In the book, The Shallows: What The Internet is Doing to Our Brains, by Nicholas Carr, he talks about how the brain functions and how the internet affecting us in a negative way. But later on, he goes on to state that it has in some ways made people smarter than they were before. I’d have to say that I do agree with everything that Nicholas Carr has to say about

“Steven Johnson proposes that what is making us smarter is precisely what we thought was making us dumber” ( 1 ). Television shows, reality shows, and even games are way different from what it was thirty years ago

He says, “When we watch these shows, the part of our brain monitors the emotional lives of the people around us−the part that tracks subtle shifts in intonation and gesture and facial expression−scrutinizes the action on the screen, looking for clues.” (Paragraph 4) I can agree to this because I have always have the interest of realistic morals, whether laid hidden or shown in the programs that I have seen. One of the shows I have seen with realistic situations is the musical drama, Empire. The show depicts a couple who have been formally in the streets but are now owning their own music company. However, they are split but slowly come back together with their three sons, one with a mental disorder, another who admits is a homosexual, and another who is disgusted by their father. The show gives much emotion because of the realistic situations that society faces today. This example defines why television erupts the high effect of emotion because realistic situations can help others become connected based on whether they relate to the conflicts brought in or wish to know how to solve the conflicts brought

In Steven Pinker’s article, “Mind Over Mass Media”, the author illustrates the intellectual benefits obtained from mass media and argues that the media doesn’t have a negative effect on our brain. His examples are the great American crime decline not because of new technologies, the predictions that the new technologies would be harmful were wrong. Not only just the crime rate decline but also the I.Q. level rose continuously. With any new media that has emerged some people continually believe that our brain power and skills will plummet. The article points that people need to use new technology with self-control. As the author concludes, that “the Internet and information technologies are helping us manage, search and retrieve our collective

The world has changed with the passing of time, but it did not necessarily become better on all levels. Popular culture has declined over the past few years because it has been heavily influenced by mass media and politics, which lately had spoiled. Still, in his article - “Everything bad is good for you” – Steven Johnson argues that today’s popular culture makes us smarter, bringing up the importance of mass media and games in the development of people; he sees “a progressive story: mass culture growing more sophisticated, demanding more cognitive engagement with each passing year”. He remembers playing sports simulation: APBA, while the other kids were playing real basketball outside. So, which one gains more skills: the one that simulates

Is the internet making us smarter or dumber? People continuously argue whether this rise of electronic use and internet in our lives is a negative or positive aspect. In June 5, 2010 Wall Street Journal article, Nicholas Carr raises and answer the intriguing question,“Does the Internet Make You Dumber?”Nicholas Carr argues that the internet has bad effects on our brain. He says that the internet makes it harder to remember anything, and that is harder to move memories into long term memory. Those who are continually distracted by emails, alerts, and text messages understand less than a person who can concentrate. Nicholas Carr points that the internet can change the way our brain acts. He states that those who use the internet are shallow, and the internet is causing irreversible damage to our thought processes and making us stupid. A week later, Steven Pinker counters Nicholas Carr’s assertions in his own New York Time article,“Mind Over Mass Media.”He argues that electronic technologies are not as horrible as some may make it seem, and he starts his article by addressing how“New forms of media have always caused moral panics”(199). Throughout his article, Pinker explains why critics, who accuse electronic technology as harming to human intelligence, are wrong. He suggests that,“these technologies are the only things that will keep us smart”(200). Through media and social networking, the internet brings people closer together and provides convenience for people’s life.

It could very well be true that over the past 20 years, television programming has developed in such a way as to demand more cognitive participation. However, watching TV is not the societal benefit Johnson makes it out to be. Johnson’s claim that TV is overall a beneficial societal force fails to account for the indirect effects of watching TV. It may be true that the cognitive demands of watching an episode of 24 do in fact stimulate brain function as opposed to diminish it. However, when a person sits down in front of the TV, he is choosing to do so instead of reading, studying, doing his homework, or exercising. These things are undisputedly beneficial to society. When one spends his time in front of the TV screen, it is time he is taking away from actually getting smarter.

An ongoing discussion about the value of Television has been whether it makes the watcher smarter or dumber. In a 2005 article about Television, Steven Johnson presented several arguments that Television makes the watcher smarter, contrary to some popularly held notions that Television is involved in the dumbing down of Television watchers. Johnson argues that Television makes you smarter for three reasons: multiple threads; fewer flashing arrows; and social networking. Johnson states that, unlike Television shows such as "Bonanza" in the "Golden Age of Television," modern Television shows such as "Hill Street Blues," "24" and "The Sopranos" carry multiple narrative threads about a number of major and minor characters. These multiple threads, according to Johnson, mean that the audience must