Pop culture is fun, not enlightening

The answer to “is popular culture (games, tv, film) just a method to "sophisticatedly deliver stupidity"? (paraphrasing George Will) is YES.

Take Johnson’s view of people’s Autism Quotient. This is apparently a measure of a person’s ability to read emotions in others. And apparently Johnson believes that shows like “The Apprentice” are sociological experiments forcing readers to assess the “social logic” of what’s going on in television’s dubbed and edited world. I believe this is foolish though. If people want to become skilled assessors of social situations, then they should put themselves in social situations. Apparently Johnson’s take is that pop culture is enlightening, but all it does is lower the bar, or raise it if you’re doing the limbo. You’re not a genius if you know all of the answers on Jeopardy.

I don’t want to be a curmudgeon here. I like pop culture, mainly because I can be amused by it, but I certainly don’t delude myself that indulging in pop culture (TV, trashy mags, movies) makes me smarter. They’re just a diversion.