Pokemon go comunity or distraction? -Al

Al 12/17/2024

Is Pokémon Go a Positive Cultural Force? Or Is it Just Another Excuse for People to Stare at Their Phones?

I Find it positive, because it’s much more of a social game than a game made purely to waste your time. I think It’s a great way to connect to people, and it’s an easy way to spend time with a friend in quicker settings. It’s an online game, but you get rewards in the game for having friends and such on your team, so the app encourages connection, and it is one of the best things about the game.

Another way it impacts people positively is in a health related way. Personally I only use pokemon go when I’m on walks or waiting at therapy, and over time it has encouraged me to take walks more frequently, which means I’m soaking in all of my needed vitamin D. I think it’s encouraged others to take walks more frequently too. Data from the National Library of Medicine supports that claim, and it states that Pokemon Go increases the user's steps on average by 1473 steps. That means pokemon go helps you stay active by encouraging you to walk around to find pokemon and to get to specific pokestops.

In some situations people still stare at their phones, but you can’t really progress or do anything in the game if you're not active. Although, and this is uncommon, because you need some tiny bits of knowledge to get it to work, you can beat the game without walking, by tricking the game into thinking you are in a particular coordinate, but the average player does not use this trick. I was likely made to see if it can be done, and so people who are unable to walk can play the game. You actually don’t need to hack anything to get it to work you just have to download the hack to your game. I’m sure some actively do this, but I think Pokemon go has a really positive community.

Pokemon go brings people together, and the community is the main reason that this app is positive in my eyes. People have whole live competitions, and tons of people who don’t know each other may become friends just because a bunch of people were trying to catch a legendary in one place at a time. It’s a less popular game nowadays, but it still has such a huge fan base, and in the apps early days it was such a cultural phenomenon. It was in the news. You don’t see just any ordinary app in the news, you only see pokemon on the news cause it brings people together. Personally I do suggest the app if you want to get into the franchise because it’s free, and it will increase the amount of physical activity you do in a day. Over all then I’d say it’s a pretty positive thing.

https://www.locachange.com/location-changer/how-to-move-in-pokemon-go-without-walking/

Althoff T, White RW, Horvitz E. Influence of Pokémon Go on Physical Activity: Study and Implications. J Med Internet Res. 2016 Dec 6;18(12):e315. doi: 10.2196/jmir.6759. PMID: 27923778; PMCID: PMC5174727.