Analysis Of Everything Bad Is Good For You By Steven Johnson

In today’s world, besides books and other types of literature, television shows are also sources rich of complex content that forces us to analyze it to gain a deeper perspective. Over the decades television shows have evolved and become more complex as generations passed. In Everything Bad is Good for You by Steven Johnson, Steven Johnson supports the idea that TV shows have a complex structure that involve three elements: multiple threading, flashing arrows, and social networks. However, unlike older shows, more modern shows display a more in depth version of this structure forcing the viewer to analyze the program or series they watch more in order to fully grasp the message the show tries to present. A comparison that explicitly shows the

Johnson claim on how more cognitive skills are required due to modern television presenting less “flashing arrows” which are used to help viewers understand an episode , “...to explain what they’re doing with that particle accelerator-that’s a flashing arrow that gives the audience precisely the information they need to know in order to make sense of the ensuing plot”(Everything Bad is Good For You 75). One of the flashing arrows in the episode “Goku... Super Saiyan?” is presented in the first few minutes as the narrator stated what occurred in the previous episode allowing the viewer to know what happened. The cognitive level require to follow this episode is low as the narrator sums up the prior knowledge needed to be aware on what is going on in the story. This help support Johnson’s claim on how modern television shows are showing less flashing arrows compared to show a decade ago such as Dragon Ball Z. With a more difficult and complex plot to follow “The Flame Vengeance” holds some flashing arrows in the beginning of the episodes which recap the previous episode, however, it’s not enough information to fully understand what is currently occurring in the episode. With less flashing arrows occurring viewers are forced to use more cognitive skills by examining the plot. These are examples of Johnson’s claim on how modern television have less flashing arrows making the viewers use my cognitive skills to follow the plot. Flashing arrows allow the viewers to do less cognitive assessments as they are given the information since, “They reduce the amount of analytic work you need to make sense of a story. All you have to do is follow the arrows”(Everything Bad Is Good For You 77). The analytic work needed to fully understand both these shows require a different level of cognitive skills. The episode “Goku... Super Saiyan?”