Do You Pokemon Go?

Careful in your non-aimless wandering.

I don’t, for the record.

I have yet to catch on to the Pokemon Go craze currently sweeping the parts of the globe where it has been rolled out. Well, generally, I don’t play video games or any games on my phone much. Yeah, you’re probably thinking I must be fun at parties, but I suppose my lack of interest in gaming stemmed from my frugal childhood. My mother was raising four daughters on her own, and in the grand scheme of things, video game consoles never ranked high in her list of things to get us for survival. So I never got to play old school Atari or Nintendo. I didn’t have Gameboy. And I certainly wouldn’t know what to do with the Nintendo Wii or Sony PlayStation.

Don’t weep for me, reader. I had a pretty normal childhood, riding bikes and playing tag with other kids outdoors, and playing with toy cars and dolls and action figures and anything else I can get my hands on. Even today, I skip on playing video games or any games on my phone and prefer reading books, visiting interesting websites, learning to bake, and playing with my dog.

The rest of the world, however, is now busy with playing Pokemon Go. You download the game on your phone and use the device to “hunt” Pokemon out in the streets. This game has been a long time coming and the moment it hit the online stores, people have been smitten.

The thing about the game is that you can hunt for Pokemon inside your house, or perhaps inside the office or restaurants and other establishments, but for the most part, there’s a greater chance of finding them when you walk around out in the open.

Can you imagine what Pokemon Go players look like? You probably don’t have to, I realize — you’ve already probably seen photos making the rounds on the Internet of large groups of people standing around in open spaces, milling about and their heads bent down, their eyes glued to their phones and tablets.

Gosh. It may be a trend, but I don’t see myself getting hooked on Pokemon Go in the near future. Sure, the game is motivating people to get out and move around (some would joke that it’s an effective way to lose weight), but then they’re all still staring at their phones and walking around like zombies in their quest to catch them all. No offense meant, but it’s just not my cup of tea. I never even got to watch the anime so I don’t know much of the names.

Hoo, boy. I sure hope all those people playing the game outdoors have the number of a mobile device repair expert handy. Can you imagine the distress one would feel after you smack into a fellow player, or slip on a puddle, or just about walk into busy traffic because you were distracted, and you drop the precious device, which creates a huge, ugly crack on the screen? If anything, that would be my motivation for not playing — I’m trying to be smart with my money, and having to buy a new one because my old one got damaged from playing a game does not fall under that category.

Good luck, though, to everyone else having a blast with the game.