Video games

Since my first days living in the dorms at Drexel, I have noticed a few cultural traits of the people at this school that I believe will make myself and the rest of my classmates more intelligent. The most prevalent activity I have seen that both Steven Johnson and myself can agree is making my generation smarter is the avid use of video games. When walking down the halls of any dorm at Drexel, you can hear the sound of the worlds favorite animated Italian, Mario, supersizing himself by jumping down a secret tunnel. However, the most popular video game played, hands down, is Guitar Hero. At first glance, guitar hero looks as if anyone of any age could be a professional; this is completely untrue. I had never played before I came to Drexel, but in my first week of school, some kids I had become acquainted with asked if I wanted to come up to their room to play. I had seen some friend’s back home play before, and it didn't look too difficult. I decided to give it a try, and headed upstairs.
When I attempted my first song, I was baffled by the tedious amount of hand eye coordination was needed to play a silly video game. You need to move you fingers quickly, process the order even quicker, and combine the two in order to hear the notes being played correctly. For the next week, any free moment I had to spare, I went upstairs and practiced. The first couple of days were almost exactly like the first attempt. However, as time progressed, my technical skill enhanced. By the end of the week, I was on the third hardest level. A great accomplishment if I do say so myself.
The whole video game era is here and now. Kids of all ages are at this very moment entering worlds of deep thought and creativity. It is in a way, an escape for many. One minute, you could be rescuing a damsel in distress from a deserted island, and the next, rocking out on the guitar next to Slash. Here, Johnson states his thoughts on the video games of today.
"If you create a system where rewards are both clearly defined and achieved by exploring an environment, you'll find human brains drawn to those systems, even if they're made up of virtual characters and simulated sidewalks. It's not the subject matter of these games that attracts – if that were the case, you'd never see twenty-something’s following absurd rescue-the-princess storylines like the best selling Zelda series on the Nintendo platform. It's the reward system that draws those players in, and keeps their famously short attention spans locked on the screen. No other form of entertainment offers that cocktail of reward and exploration"
It is with these words that Johnson shows exactly how these video games are helping to enhance the intelligence of today’s generation.