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Home >> Hearts & Minds >> Bugs Bunny Stole My Cognitive Surplus!

Bugs Bunny Stole My Cognitive Surplus!

July 27, 2010

Today is the 70th anniversary of “A Wild Hare” the first appearance of Bugs Bunny, who first appeared in my mother’s generation, and continued to be (as Clay Shirky argues ) one of the primary time-wasters uses of cognitive surplus indulged in by my own generation.

Here’s that original short (which my mom might have seen in the movie theater along with a news reel about the World’s Fair or the Germans bombing London):

This was nominated for an Academy Award. If that disturbs you, perhaps you could pick up Everything Bad Is Good for You in which Steven Johnson argues that pop culture, by demanding more & more of our cognitive surplus in order for us to keep up with it’s increasing complexity, is actually making us smarter.

Not sure if I buy that, but I do know that the stranger Bugs got, the more I liked it:

What do you think? Do popular stories get more complex over time? Have the shows you watch become more challenging? Can complex structure offset vapid content? Is it possible to have both?

Shelved with: Hearts & Minds|| Mind & Society|| Visions & Ventures|| Visual Arts
Tagged With: Bugs Bunny, Cognitive Surplus, Culture, History, Holidays, Psychology, Television
By circlereader 2 Comments

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  1. Andrew Wetzel says:
    July 27, 2010 at 11:21 pm

    Bugs Bunny's first appearance was nominated for an Academy Award. http://bit.ly/bEELyk Happy Birthday, Bugs!

    Reply
  2. Andrew Wetzel says:
    July 28, 2010 at 1:47 pm

    For the morning crowd: Bugs Bunny Stole My Cognitive Surplus! http://bit.ly/d4Hqo4

    Reply

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