Analysis Of Video Games Are Good For You By Steve Johnson

Steve Johnson’s, “Why Games are Good For You”, is part of his best-selling book Everything Bad Is Good for You: How Today’s Popular Culture Is Actually Making Us Smarter, which was published in 2005. Johnson writes about science and culture, specifically the impact of cyber technology on human perception and communication (481). Through this essay, Johnson defends the value of video games, along with other past times that are considered a waste of time. His main claim is that video games teach us how to think, which in turn helps us make decisions and form attitudes based on the decisions we make. He stresses that video games are good for us because they improve so much more than just hand-eye coordination. Johnson begins his essay by showing us the different types of arguments that people make about video games. For example, he makes a reference from Andrew Solomon’s essay “The Closing of the American Book” in which Solomon claims that those who read books are more likely to succeed, and those that don’t are headed towards disaster and more likely to become insensitive (Johnson 482). Johnson also goes on to ask what would be said if video games came before books? His answer is that we would think of books the same way we think of video …show more content…
He reinforces the fact that it all has to do with the reward circuitry inside our brains. The author also explains that the human brain is drawn to systems where rewards are clearly defined and achievable in certain environments (Johnson 492). When we are hooked on a game, it’s because we want to know what happens next so we can gain a reward. He emphasizes that reward is everywhere, both in the real world and the virtual world (Johnson 491). The only difference between the two is that video game rewards are better than those in life; they are larger, more vivid, and more clearly