It was a quiet Wednesday night...at least as quiet as an American evening during the summer before a big election could be.
Televisions buzzed day in and day out with news of this candidate and that candidate, as well as other current events that always seemed to pop up just in time to give the world a break from the ever crazy chatter of controversy surrounding the two leading parties. That week in particular, civil rights campaigns were stirring again as the people cried that “yet another unjust death” was caused by police.
If you ask me, the media was just feeding the world new controversy to cover up other controversies. They’d do anything to keep ratings up, even stir the pot that would have lead to the next civil war.
That Wednesday, something different happened. Something that seemed good became breaking news. A new app was introduced to America, and in the few short hours it had spent in the app store before the 10 o'clock news, it had already combatted the laziness that plagued America.
It was called Pokémon GO and the main point of the game was to get gamers off the couch and into the world. It was a fantastic idea, in theory.
Soon, it seemed the entire country was overrun by little imaginary creatures. The augmented reality feature on the app allowed users to see what wasn’t really there. Better yet, they could take pictures of these creatures invading our world, allowing them to flood social media.
Teams pitted the players, called trainers, against each other. Children, Millennials, and adults alike declared their loyalty to either Instinct, Mystic, or Valor. It was competitive for the sake of the gyms in the game. Soon people were buying tee shirts to wear with pride as they trained to become the very best. Memes circulated the internet mocking members of other teams. This bout of “friendly” rivalry was not the worst that would come from the game’s competitive nature though.
One of the many negative results that came of the divisions were what seemed to be internet gang wars as new bonds were created, old friendships were destroyed, and meaner memes were created.
The effects of the harmless at first glance game started to unfold.
The tagline for everything Pokémon has always been “Gotta Catch ‘Em All,” and with the pocketmonsters being introduced to the real world, people took the phrase quite literally.
Headlines changed from pre-election poll results to Two Dead In Deadly Poké-Crash. People were trespassing and thugs used the game’s Pokéstops to their advantage, luring unsuspecting trainers right into a trap to mug them or worse.
It wasn’t long before eyes were literally glued to smartphone screens. The trainers walked around zombielike, too busy throwing Pokéballs and raspberries to worry about the oncoming traffic. Death tolls steadily rose, and guns weren’t to blame. People were introduced to the outside world and only turned to blame the game they refused to put down for each of their injuries.
The game ran its course right through the population of the world. With each country that it was introduced to, the death toll rose. Soon only people like you and I were left to roam the world.
We are the survivors of the Poké-apocalypse.
