In Everything Bad is Good For You, Johnson claims that almost anything someone has claimed as destroying the youth of nation has been found as being actually good for us and is making us smarter.
Another piece of research has been supports this theory. According to the Globe and Mail:
A new study of 100 university undergraduates in Toronto has found that video gamers consistently outperform their non-playing peers in a series of tricky mental tests. If they also happened to be bilingual, they were unbeatable.
"The people who were video game players were better and faster performers," said psychologist Ellen Bialystok, a research professor at York University. "Those who were bilingual and video game addicts scored best -- particularly at the most difficult tasks."
Of course, there's no way a serious journalist can write an article about the positive benefits of games without mentioning the negative angle as well:
Although Prof. Bialystok is a strong proponent of bilingual education, she is less enthusiastic about video games. Recent studies have found overexposure to violent video games may desensitize children to violence and that gaming can become addictive enough to distract from other activities.
"I'd still be plenty concerned if my child played them all the time," Prof. Bialystok said. "Sure, they're getting better at rapid search and response problems, but I really would prefer my child read a book."
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