The bad news keeps coming.

TV rots your brain. Video games squash your social skills. You’re better off with a bong load than you are e-mailing your friends.

Pay too much attention to the experts, and pretty much all your guilty pleasures (The O.C., cold pizza, lying in bed all weekend) will lead to your demise.

In steps Steven Johnson. His new book, Everything Bad Is Good for You, justifies pop culture fanaticism in a major way. Johnson claims that any activity that encourages “thinking behavior” — whether it’s following complicated plotlines, repeatedly making decisions under the gun, or gorging on online news (late-breaking celeb pregnancies included) — creates a more intelligent society. You might be sitting still, but you’re a participant, not a potato (as some might have called you).

Once you’ve read it, you’ll have comebacks galore for anyone who dares attack your reality television obsession, er, habit. It’s tough to argue with the idea that your emotional IQ has been upped thanks to the human drama of American Idol.

So remember, that which does not kill you just might make you smarter.

Available online at amazon.com or at your local bookstore.