Everything Bad is Good for You: How Today's Popular Culture Is Actually Making Us Smarter, Steven Johnson.  Johnson's premise is painfully simple, but admirably backed up with rather excessive minutiae about role-playing games and multilevel television. Decent ammunition for rebutting "the media is making us stupid" myth, Johnson skates along mostly on the merits of an admittedly catchy title.  As popular sociology goes, compare this to Atkins diet books.

Originally read July 2005