One of the underlining concepts of Steven Johnson’s Everything is Bad is Good for You is the Sleeper Curve. Taken from Woody Allen’s mock sci-fi film, Sleeper has a sequence where scientists from 2173 are stunned, amazed even that twentieth-century society failed to realize the nutritional merits of cream pies and hot fudge.

Johnson builds off the Sleeper Curve concept to argue that pop culture is actually making us smarter, no matter what the politicians and most academics would like you to believe. I’ve tried to explain this concept to a number of my friends who have children, many times unsuccessfully. Many of them seem to fall into the camp that both TV and video games are a “bad” thing. I argue that age-safe video games and TV isn’t a bad thing, if taken in moderation. I generally use two examples.

Green Acres and Dragnet used to be two of the highest ranking prime time TV shows. Catch a few episodes on TV Land then watch a show like Lost or Heroes. The differences in the complexity of the storyline is stunning. Or take a game like Pong or Techmo Bowl. Now compare those games against Final Fantasy XII or Madden ‘07. Again the differences are so stark I can’t even put them into words.

Now Johnson does a better job of explaining the changes in our media, but in a nutshell he argues that TV shows have moved away from a single, basic narrative to a multithread narrative on much more complex topics that are interrelated at multiple levels. And the narratives last not a single show, but multiple seasons, building upon themselves to become even more complex.

Today’s video games also share the same type of multithread narrative, but some, like Grand Thief Auto, take it to anther level cause you play in an “open” environment where the gamer shapes their own narrative.

Now again I am for moderation. It is still important that people actually read a book from time to time. Go for a walk. Lay in a field and stare at the stars. Play a pick-up softball game. Talk to people face-to-face. But doing any of those things 24/7, as with TV and video games, isn’t a good idea either.

I say all of this cause as we start to enter a presidential election video games and TV programs are going to come under attack by those looking to score cheap political points on topics they don’t really know much about.

Now I know to a larger extent my audience here on the blogsphere will understand what I am saying far more then the “general” public (any maybe myself). But I caution you all, regardless of political party, to voice your concerns when you’re told the Simpsons and Grand Theft Auto are destroying our civilization.

We live in an exciting time from a media point-of-view. Heck, a world where a major presidential candidate even have campaign offices in the virtual world of Second Life. But I worry that in this presidential election cycle the “fear” card will be played and new laws will be introduced that will stifle these industries and the choices both you and I have moving forward. Ok, rant ended.