Jason Kottke points to a "short but good" interview with Steven Johnson, the author of Emergence and Mind Wide Open. Skip to the end of the interview, where Johnson discusses his forthcoming book, Everything Bad is Good for You:

"It's a pure work of persuasion, arguing that popular culture, on average, has been growing more cognitively challenging over the past thirty years, not less. Despite everything you hear about declining standards and dumbing-down, you have to do more intellectual work to make sense of today's television or games -- much less the internet -- than you did a few decades ago. It will definitely be the most controversial of my books, but I think it's also going to be a fun read."