Pokemon Go

August 8,  2016

Greetings from the phenomenon,

No, it is not the Zombie Apocalypse.  It’s not an impromptu meeting of Ambien victims.  Not the start of a lethargic flash mob.  Not a poorly organized line for the mass transit the masses don’t use.

What prompted these observations was the sight of a dozen strangers sleep-walking toward a corner which featured, among nothing else, an empty lot.  There was a subdued hysteria, which is what hysteria is like when several people experience it once but are too shy to let the others know. 

Typically I get involved with trendy things just as they are becoming obscure enough to be anti trend, where cynical people only refer to them to be ironic.  This can be confusing to me because of my natural immunity to irony.  I’m actually irony-deficient.  It’s really a thing; my doctor recommended more spinach.

I have made several attempts to get involved in whatever the latest craze is, if for no other reason than to be able to understand what my kids are talking about.  It’s how I got all these pairs of cargo shorts.  I’m a cool Dad.

Which brings me to Pokemon Go.

Before we go any further, I am not writing today to criticize the game.  I happen to know that it is the most popular download in the world, and based on my estimates every person in the universe is playing it except me and about 50 people in Rio who can’t get away from the Free Style Coed Badminton/Greco Roman Ribbon Dancing long enough to play.  So the last thing I want to do is alienate all of humanity.  Not to mention Charizard, Jigglypuff or Squirtle.

I am not going to pile on with other critics who rail about people looking at their phones instead of the world, or talk about the car accidents, people falling off cliffs or walking into poles or tumbling down stairs while chasing Pokemons on their phone.  I know that people have used the game to lure players into dangerous situations.

With all that, I think the game has incredible potential for good. 

The Pokemon Go game has moved some people from their chairs and out into the world.   It is a fascinating social experiment.  This global scavenger hunt has done in just a few weeks what it would take somebody’s Dad a decade to accomplish.

It has created community, probably caused people to meet, it has challenged a few souls to venture up out of the basement and out where the sun shines on Pikachu.  It definitely has caused some people to move that normally eschew such phenomenon.

One of the elements of the game are locations called ‘Gyms’.  It is interesting that these are often situated at churches and libraries.  I know the reason for this but the potential is dizzying. 

I suppose a lot of the appeal of the game has to do with nostalgia, twenty-somethings reliving the Nintendo game or competing with their Pokemon cards when they were younger.   And the game is simple, fun to play, and doesn’t have to cost anything.  So it’s entertainment, simple enough.

But I am excited to think that the same platform, the same idea could be a lever for social change, for positive good.  I know, leave it to a guy who wears cargo shorts to try to take the fun out of stuff and try to make it something practical or sensible.  Sorry.

In most every place I have been there are these corners.   It is the place where you exit the highway, or maybe a strip of median on a busy street.  The grass is stomped to extinction; the dirt there is littered with cigarette butts and other trash.  There are signs stapled to the telephone pole that offer gun classes, cheap mattresses, rewards for lost pets, garage sales from six weeks ago.  This is where people stand to beg for money.  They hold their own signs telling us they are homeless, or a mother, or a vet.  They say anything will help.  Go there.

There are these buildings where old people are stored.  Some are nicer than others, but they all have an air of desperate loneliness.  There is a question on the lips of nearly all the residents; ‘When will they visit me?’  Go there.

There are these shelters where people go when their last resort gave out.  They are desperate, they want a future, they want safety, they need a connection with some path other than the one that led them to the last resort.  Go there.

There are these kids who could read but haven’t been read to.  They are eager and bright and filled with potential, and it is slowly ebbing out of them because there aren’t enough laps to sit on, or enough teachers or books or parents who care or enough.  Go there.

Pokemon Go is a craze, and it will flare and pass.  It’s for fun, enjoy it.  But someone pay attention: when we want to move a hundred million people from their chairs to an abandoned empty lot, it can be done.  What else can we do?  Is there an app for human compassion?

Hope this finds you catching them all,

David

Copyright © 2016 David Smith