Every since I read Steven Johnson's book Emergence, which is about my own field of complex systems, I've enjoyed his approach. So, I just had to read his new book with the provocative title of Everything Bad Is Good for You: How Today's Popular Culture Is Actually Making Us Smarter It's a quick read; you could finish it on a bus ride. It offers interesting anecdotal and research evidence that as our culture becomes more and more complex (and by extension our media) our brains evolve to become better able to parse complex concepts and conceptual environments. It is not just an exciting read, but also is a good counter to weak arguments about the decline of the modern media and the civilization that created it. I've even considered introducing my own kid to complex computer gaming as a result of reading this book.