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.