I have mixed feelings about Pokémon Go. Mostly because it's one of the strangest cultural phenomenons I've experienced in 18 years of existence. It brings people together, and out into the world, and simultaneously tears them apart. Almost in one solid, swift motion. And it happened overnight.

I can honestly say I'm growing up in an age where it takes an app to motivate people to get outside, meet new people, and explore their own cities. It's a game on a screen, and it's the only thing that could get my own family to walk around together on a Monday night.

On one hand, it does get people out and about and actively participating in something local, and on the other hand, it only encourages more screen time and endangers people by pulling them so deep into the game that they end up doing things like almost walking into oncoming traffic or staying out until 3 AM.

World, if this was your game of Go Fish, congratulations. You caught us, and we're eating out of the palm of your hand.

My mom asked me four times Monday night if my boyfriend was still coming over, despite my being sick, because we had planned on 7 and it was 8:20 by the time he arrived. There was a lure. Or a valor meet-up. Or something. He got distracted. For an hour and 10 minutes.

"Is he still coming?" my mom asked a fourth time, and I said; "I really don't know."

It's hard to be someone like me in situations like this; because I value people much more than I value anything, and most of the people I've met aren't like that at all.

But I guess that isn't the point.

So now I sit down to dinner with friends and they're refreshing their home screens every 5 minutes to catch more, or making me get a to-go box so we can walk half a mile to the next Pokéstop before time runs out.

Or I wait half an hour for a text back because they had to catch a Snorlax. Or our plans get cancelled all together because they need to charge their phone, and by then I will have gone to bed.

To my old soul, I hate you and I love you so.

My friend called me in tears on Tuesday night, after her boyfriend had cancelled plans, leaving her in a pretty dress and all dolled up with no place to go, all because he decided he'd rather hang out with people who probably never learned his name. "I'm a second priority now, only losing to an electronic game," she cried.

Just in case you're wondering, there are few things sadder than seeing a girl in a pretty dress all dolled up and with high hopes, and knowing she's been let down. It's bad when there's a good reason; it's so much worse when the reason is a handheld device that lacks a heartbeat, emotion, and life.

I cried too. For her, and I think for this entire generation. Because this is getting out of hand.

I'm all for fun, and things that bring joy to people, and things that people can find in common with one another- don't get me wrong. I adore my friends and my boyfriend and my family regardless. I'm just sad that a game- a virtual world that really doesn't do anything, is becoming such a high priority. Such an addiction. Such a "let's go here on our date because it's a Pokéstop" kind of thing.

I told my brother this, as we walked down the streets of downtown Wichita, because he wanted to catch some at my place of employment. I said: "You know, this is the beginning of the end. This is how the apocalypse is going to happen. It won't be zombies. It'll be us. With our phones out in front of our faces. With the headlines in newspapers talking about how many accidents there have been now that drivers and pedestrians are both glued to their phones."

Those would be sad headlines.

"Virtual Game Startles Family of Dead Child into Harsh Reality."

"Pedestrian Killed by Pokémaster."

Think about that for a second.

And you may think that's extreme, but these are things that have actually happened. And will happen again, often, if we aren't careful. This is dangerous.

As my brother said, as disheartening as it was to hear: "This is NOT just a game, this is a lifestyle."

And he's right. It's a lifestyle. But a destructive one, and somehow also, one that's brought people closer together. One that's made people get in their cars, or on their feet, and go places they haven't been to in a while or ever.

How do you not have mixed feelings about something like this? How do you explain this? 15 years from now, when my kids are looking through my scrapbooks of photos from college, when they ask about Pokémon Go, what will I tell them?

To my future children: In all honesty, I'm probably not the person to talk to about it. But let's go for a long walk, and I'll tell you what I know. The catch? Leave your phones at home.

We're going to catch a case of "our-sides-are-sore-and-we-can't-stop-laughing." Nothing more, nothing less.