Pokemon Go — Everybody Wins

Pokemon Go has just been released in Canada (shows you what kinda second tier country we are). Everybody’s jumped ship to go hunt for the little bastard and his buddies and now there’s nobody left to talk to.  Not that the conversation has been up to much these days, what with Taylor Swift feuding with Kanye and Kim — again, Russian athletes getting caught for doping — again — and some Playboy bunny being publically shamed for publically shaming some other woman earlier in the week.  Plus ça change!

(To be fair, Dani Mathers, the original shamer, apologized —  not to the woman she made fun of — the shamee — but to the Internet in general.  Then she offered some lame ass “sorry-I’m-a-techno-idiot” excuse for posting the picture and making her juvenile joke.  Oddly, she never mentioned the teeny-tiny fact that she’d just taken a naked photograph of a stranger — without permission.  Personally, I thought there were laws against such things but in the brave new world of who’s on the shaming carousel, I’m pretty certain law enforcement has thrown up its hands in disgust.)

Anyway, enough about shaming.

I’m a huge fan of this Pokemon Go phenom and in my opinion the Pokemon people are doing humanity a great service.

One — Pokemoners (Pokemonites?) (Pokemonians?) are vertical and moving.  This is a good thing.  Video games have a tendency to weaken the mind and widen the backside, so, getting hordes of pale people out of their basement ass grooves has got to be a positive thing.  This might not be a lot of exercise but … it’s better than what we had.  Honestly, some of the folks I’ve seen stumbling around staring at their phones look as if they haven’t bestirred themselves since the original video game came out in 1995.

Two — A strange thing happens when gamers are unleashed from their consoles and their television sets — they act like real people.  I’ve seen people — this is true — talking to each other.  They use hand gestures, body language and facial expressions.  I’ve seen them flirt, cavort and even discuss.  Obviously, it’s all about which little fellow they found, didn’t find or are looking for but, still, it’s a start.

And finally:

Three — As long as the Pokemon hunt is on, there is a whole pile of  Internet personalities who just aren’t there — they’re previously engaged.  I’m not one of these “get-a-life” people. Honestly, if you want to spend your time playing with imaginary creatures that’s your business and who am I to judge?  (After all. I write fiction, for God’s sake!)  However, it doesn’t bother me a bit that I’ve noticed the number of nasty, gossipy, disjointed and just plain idiotic comments on the Internet have decreased since Pokemon Go has hove up on the horizon.  So, it looks like we all win.  Just sayin’!