The Flynn Effect and the Sleeper Curve

In the book Everything Bad is Good for You by Stephen Johnson, he begins the second part of the book stating the relationship between the Flynn Effect and the Sleeper Curve. To refresh some of your memories, Johnson says the Sleeper Curve is "The most debased forms of mass diversion--video games and violent television dramas and juvenile sitcoms--turn out to be nutritional after all" (9). In contrast, the Flynn Effect is described as the increase of IQ points with changing environmental factors. Johnson answers the question of the relevance to the Sleeper Curve and IQ as the "differences between generations don't prose the same problems that differences within generations do" (142). This just means that looking at the IQ scores form way back when and now, they have increased to the point that genetic factors can no longer play a rule because the gene pool has not changes that much in a generation; only an explanation of "environmental factor (or combination of factors) must be responsible for the increase int he specific forms of intelligence that IQ measures: problem solving, abstract reasoning, pattern recognition, spatial logic" Johnson 142).  


The main connection that Johnson is trying to make between the Sleeper Curve and the Flynn Effect is that with all of the gaming and television watching in today's society, the IQ of the general population is still rising disregarding race, sex, or location. So, if genetic makeup is not making us smarter, and reading the same books are not improving intellect, the only possible explanation leads directly back to the thesis of Johnson's book: Technology is making the world smarter. Since the advancement of cell phones, computers, and television are the only things being consistently and constantly changed, leaving us with this being the top explanation for higher level thinking skills and higher IQ tests. Johnson mentions a test called the Raven test; this test basically uses patterns and spatial recognition skills to an intelligence test with no words or direction. The direction is simply filling the blank, or missing part of a shaped pattern. So, in essence I agree with the connection because as I sit here typing, I am not looking at the key board. How can one explain this? Well, let's just put it in this perspective. My brain is able to sit here and think, possibly be listening to music, and able to recall thirty-six plus keys at a simultaneous instance. If technology is not increasing my intelligence, I do not know what is. 


The Flynn Effect is a simple explanation of increasing IQ scores as time goes by. However, the connection between the Flynn Effect and the Sleeper Curve lies in the hands of technology; leading the world's intellect one circuit at a time. Since kids today can do multi-tasking like never before, the fact that  technology is prevalent would be a false accusation. Being able to text, talk, type my report, social networking, and listening to my favorite song is a direct correlation to exponentially rising IQ scores. So the next time you are stuck in the state of hardcore multi-tasking, just think how you are being being affected, not only mentally but intellectually as a society. 


Johnson, Steven. Everything bad is good for you: how today's popular culture is   -----> actually making us smarter. New York: Riverhead Books, 2005. Print.

Everything Bad is Good for You

Glee: Silly Love Songs

This episode aired on February 12, 2010, and as usual, the show blew my mind. This show always offers such a variety of emotion and excitement wrapped up in a ball called Glee. As a critic, this show offers such polarity because in one instance there are relationships and real world drama, and the next moment they break out in a song (THAT I KNOW) to demonstrate the passion behind this emotion. I feel as if Glee is one the best shows on television right now because it offers a meeting point where people of all ages can meet somewhere in the middle. Using one word I would describe this show as Diverse; it offers a wide range of entertainment, sometimes adult humor, to silly love humor. I love hearing the different version or arrangements done with songs from today's popular culture like Katy Perry's Firework, Queen's Fat Bottomed Girls, and Michael Jackson's Thriller.

Like many shows in today's program choices, the amount of conflict and stories are becoming more complex; instead of there being one central story, television has evolved into a multi-storylined phenomenon. Author of Everything Bad is Good for you, Steve Johnson, states "The narrative weaves together a collection of distinct strands--sometimes as many as ten, though at least half of the threads involve only a few quick scenes scattered through the episodes" (67). As well as the amount of story lines that are intertwined, dialogue is becoming a more inferential process, rather an arrow pointing to the answer. Just like how people learn rules of video games, the mind is directly forced to do the same with television and fill in the open spaces between scenes and dialogue on a television show (Johnson 77).

The first argument is a personal argument in which a guy named Puck is in love with a girl named Lauren. Ever since they went to sectionals he has wanted to be with her. So from looking at this from the view of the Elements of Argument Book, the claim is a claim of fact. The audience can recognize this because throughout the episode Puck is constantly trying to get this girl's attention and prove to her his love by singing to her, getting her chocolates, and asking her to be his valentine. The scenarios presented are support for this claim that he really does love her. Like this conflict of "love" another conflict arises right off of the bat in which this boy is in love with another boy. Going back to the Puck-Lauren situation, there is this girl names Santana that gets into argument with Lauren fighting over Puck to gain his love back. We can see that this is a typical, everyday, high school related argument. All of these arguments are supported by previous episode's foreshadowing and present scenes. Mostly all of the arguments in this show as a whole are teen related drama, but it is the road getting there that keeps a person's interest.

Glee is a show of many tales demonstrating conflict, yet relating to Everything Bad is Good for You offering a thinking process to place time and events together and make many inferences. Happening in all of these episodes, however in this episode in particular these arguments rise in the same fashion that Johnson describes them in his book, eventually showing little clips throughout the episode to continue the story. These tactics can be applied to many, if not all, television shows proving a complex story line, inferential events, and many claims that are supported. Glee airs on Tuesday night at 8 o'clock PM and it is a MUST that you give it a chance and watch it at least one, you will not regret it.



Johnson, Steven. Everything bad is good for you: how today's popular culture is actually    ----->making us smarter. New York: Riverhead Books, 2005. Print.