Published in 2005, it details Johnson's theory that popular culture – in particular television programs and video games – has grown more complex and demanding over time and is making society as a whole more intelligent, contrary to the perception that modern electronic media are harmful or unconstructive.
Johnson offers several sources for information on ludology; Ludology.org and seriousgames.org as well as the books Got Game by John Beck and Mitchell Wade and The Play Ethic by Pat Kane.
[3]: 224–225 Johnson admits that television and film demand less decision-making skills than video games, but also says that the benefits from reading (attention, patience, retention, the parsing of narrative threads, etc.)
[2][3]: 73–74, 77–78 Finally, he states that "reality shows demand that we track multiple relationships, since the action of these shows revolves around the shifting feuds and alliances between more than a dozen individuals”[2] Johnson says this activates social intelligence, defining it as “our ability to monitor and recall many distinct vectors of interaction in the population around us” and, thus, watchers shall be able to better understand social networks.
[2] He asserts that television is a "brilliant medium" for determining how skilled people are at understanding interpersonal connections, or their Autism Quotient (the higher a person's emotional intelligence, the lower their "AQ"),[3]: 98–99 and that reality shows in particular realistically display the complexity of "social network maps" in human relations, where a group of people have complex and intertwined engagement.
[3]: 108 Earlier television, Johnson says, simplified narrative and human relationships, while modern trends not only in reality shows but in "multiple threading" in scripted programs such as The Sopranos improve the audience's cognitive skills.
[2] He declares that “accelerating pace of new platforms and software applications forces users to probe and master new environments” such as “learning the tricks of a new e-mail client, configuring the video chat software properly, getting your bearings after installing a new operating system.”[2] Additionally, he points out that “in the past few years [the Web has] been [a tool] for augmenting social connection” naming “online personals, social and business network sites such as Friendster, the meetup.com service so central to the political organization of the 2004 campaign.