Can Bad Be Good?

When people of my generation see kids glued to the tube or attached like an umbilical cord to their Sony PS2s, we assume that IQs are dropping and neurons are stopping.

Not so, argues Steven Johnson in Everything Bad Is Good for You. Here's a quote from the dust jacket:
A video game will never be a book--nor should it aspire to be--and in fact, video games from Tetris to the Sims to Grand Theft Auto have been shown to raise IQ scores and develop cognitive abilities that can't be learned from books.

Here's a quote from p. 117-118:

The rise of the Internet has challenged our minds in three fundamental and related ways: by virtue of being participatory, by forcing users to learn new interfaces, and by creating new channels for social interaction.

This is an interesting book and an easy read.