everything bad is good for you

I have always said that when I have children I will not buy a gaming console, I will limit TV, and I will monitor their surfing time.  Now, after reading this book, I realize I have been saying this all for the wrong reasons.  It isn't the violence, sex, and overall lack of moral content that I should be worried about. 

According to Malcolm Gladwell (author of some of my favorites like The Tipping Point), "Steven Johnson proposes that what is making us smarter is precisely what we thought was making us dumber: popular culture."

Johnson's book argues, very convincingly might I add, that pop culture is growing more sophisticated and posing new cognitive challenges that are actually exercising our brains, not atrophying them.  I cannot believe I'm actually buying his argument but I am.  Maybe I will take my colleague's advice and rent all the seasons of Lost this summer.  Either that or start playing Grand Theft Auto :)