No Sir, Video Games Make You Smarter

The younger generation’s urge to play video games has spawned a number of jokes for teachers. We had a cartoon up on the wall in the science office for years. A young man is seated in front of the desk of an older gentleman who is wearing a suit and tie. The man behind the desk is in human resources and he appears to be interviewing the young man for a potential job. A puzzled look is on the face of the older man and the caption reads:

“So, would you say you have any other skills other than being good at video games?”

Time to Think Differently?
It just may be time to rethink that viewpoint, at least according to science writer Steven Johnson. In his latest book called Everything Bad Is Good for You Johnson tackles one of the most important debates of today’s modern world.

Every where we turn, video games, television, in-home media and even computers are given as the chief reason for one of society’s many ills today. It could be childhood obesity or the unwillingness of students to pay attention to their studies. It could be the young adult generation, a huge group of couch potatoes who also forgo physical excercise and are said to be totally unaware of the civic and political issues facing their local community or their country.

Johnson disagrees with the impact on the intellectual side in his book Everything Good. The text builds a strong and convincing case that all this high tech gadgetry, even video games, is in fact good for you.

The key component within Johnson’s book is a concept he calls the “Sleeper Curve.” According to Johnson, pop entertainment actually forces more intellectual thinking than is generally accepted. Johnson even cites today’s inane reality shows as offering more “cognitive work” than past television fare. In fact he may well have a point - it has been suggested that such shows may be more intellectual than the likes of “I Love Lucy” or “The Love Boat”.

Johnson also insists that the fast-paced world of today demands snap decision-making. Therefore getting involved in role-playing, video games or mastering new virtual environments on the Internet can be critical for developing the cognitive thinking skills necessary to survive in today’s world.

Says Publishers Weekly of Johnson’s work: “Consumers are drawn specifically to those products that require the most mental engagement, from small children who can’t get enough of their favorite Disney DVDs to adults who find new layers of meaning with each repeated viewing of Seinfeld. Johnson lays out a strong case that what we do for fun is just as educational in its way as what we study in the classroom.”

Stimulation is Indeed Critical for Learning
Measuring intellectual stimulation is a challenge. But make no mistake, such stimulation is critical to learning new things. And so is relevance. This may be where Johnson gets the most mileage from those reality shows, they have relevance to many viewers. And if we do not find relevance in what we are being asked to learn we simply do not have that great an interest in learning it.

So, could it be that today’s paper and pencil, book-oriented teaching format is actually the reason we do not have smarter kids? And is the subsequent negative attitude about all this multimedia input actually keeping us from taking the steps that would revolutionize education?

Perhaps Johnson is on to something?