On pop culture

[cema]

Reading books chronically understimulates the senses. Unlike the longstanding tradition of gameplaying—which engages the child in a vivid, three-dimensional world filled with moving images and musical sound-scapes, navigated and controlled with complex muscular movements—books are simply a barren string of words on the page. . . .

Books are also tragically isolating. While games have for many years engaged the young in complex social relationships with their peers, building and exploring worlds together, books force the child to sequester him or herself in a quiet space, shut off from interaction with other children. . . .

But perhaps the most dangerous property of these books is the fact that they follow a fixed linear path. You can’t control their narratives in any fashion—you simply sit back and have the story dictated to you. . . . This risks instilling a general passivity in our children, making them feel as though they’re powerless to change their circumstances. Reading is not an active, participatory process; it’s a submissive one.

[new yorker]

This is sort of a joke, but sort of not.

Also, I think the critic is right on point when he is talking about different kinds of intelligence and how they interplay.

Comments

[ygam.livejournal.com]

Интересно. Подумаю.

[syarzhuk.livejournal.com]

По-моему, большая лажа.
1) С телевидением - перепутаны курица и яйцо. Не более сложные программы делают людей "умнее", а более "умные" люди требуют более сложных программ. Все примеры, которые приводятся в статье - программы для взрослых, когда мозг уже выращен. Сравнил бы он мультики, было бы более релевантно.
2) У меня от чтения статьи сложилось первое впечатление, что автор книги объясняет рост IQ поп-культурой, в частности, игрушками. Я уже начал писать гневный пост, потом внимательно перечитал. Естественно, автор книги ни на что подобное не претендует, и весь первый абзац - домыслы автора статьи. Иначе было бы очень трудно объяснить, как игра в GTA ("Twenty years ago, games like Tetris or Pac-Man were simple exercises in motor coördination and pattern recognition. Today’s games belong to another realm.") является доказательством того, что "Twenty years ago, a political philosopher named James Flynn uncovered a curious fact. Americans—at least, as measured by I.Q. tests—were getting smarter."

[cema.livejournal.com]

1. Возможно, но необязательно. Так или иначе, не думаю, что автор проводил или изучал эксперименты, которые могли бы дать адекватный ответ.

2. Средний IQ рос весь XX век, и скорее это связано с более доступным образованием, чем с иными факторами. Опять же, эксперименты etc.

[spamsink]

You can’t control their narratives in any fashion

Yes, I can!

I can put a book aside to engage in other activities, including reading other books, and continue reading later, or to think about what's being read, or to compare it with another book, or to consult an encyclopedia, in which cases you can continue reading with a different attitude, or to stop reading this particular book whatsoever. All these things are impossible or grossly impractical - physically or conventionally - with a live narrative.

Boy, are these new age "thinkers" shallow...

[cema.livejournal.com]

You can control your own narrative, which may be based on a particular book and more, but you cannot control the narrative in the book itself.

I am not sure this is a new age thinker. I cannot say he is not one, but the way the article was put together made a positive impression on me: clear arguments and rejection of reliance on common fallacies, which is sort of contrary to the impression I get from the new age.

[spamsink]

Leaving changing attitudes aside, you can control the delivery rate of the narrative, i.e. keeping your own pace. Moreover, nowhere else your critical thinking is stimulated as much as while reading a book or an article.

What you've quoted is a quotation from the book itself; it appears that it was in jest; maybe deliberately arguable. All right, then.

When it comes to the other kind of intelligence, it is not clear at all what kind of progress we are making, as anyone who has read, say, the Gettysburg Address alongside any Presidential speech from the past twenty years can attest.

Nah. It's the Supreme Court opinions that we have to compare.

[cema.livejournal.com]

Yes, one can control the speed of delivery.

Yes, it was in jest.

:-)

[anhinga-anhinga.livejournal.com]

> you cannot control the narrative in the book itself

Perhaps I can't control it, but my experience is that it varies from one reading of a book to another reading of the same book, sometimes quite strongly!

Which does not surprise me anymore...

[cema.livejournal.com]

Interesting point.