It’s been a little over a week since its release, yet Pokémon Go is becoming the next cultural phenomenon. Millions of people all over the world are catching Pokemon every day during their daily activities, whether it’s at home, with the children, or even at work. What’s even more mind boggling is that it’s not the kids today that are excited about Pokemon Go, it’s the young adults similar in age with me that are freaking out over this game. Even forty year men, and women are hooked on catching these virtual Pokemon in real life. People knew that Pokemon Go would be a hit, but no one knew the magnitude of the cultural shockwave it would would cause.
People are trying to figure out why Pokemon Go is gaining so much traction right now. Specifically, some folks are baffled that adults would be obsessing over catching Pokemon, becoming a Pokemon trainer, and beating gym leaders. Why would a grown man or woman want to play this game?
Well, since I’m a 21-year-old adult who loves Pokemon Go, I can explain.
Being a kid born in the 90’s, I knew a lot about Pokemon. When Pokemon Blue and Red were first released, they were the video games that everyone had to play. I know that, when I was a kid, I spent hours catching Pokemon and training them so I could beat other trainers. Then the Pokemon trading cards came out and I started collecting those so I could beat other kids. It wasn’t just me who was hooked on Pokemon. Every kid in the 90’s knew about them. Every kid wanted to play the games or watch the TV show. Every kid in the 90’s secretly wished that one day they could become a Pokemon trainer. Every generation had one or two things that people went crazy for, for our generation, that was Pokemon.
Fast forward to 2016. Kids born in the early to mid 90’s are now young adults trying to make their way through the real world. And boy is the real world a scary place right now. Every day, you hear on the news about more and more people getting killed by gun violence. You hear about how another political leader is corrupting America when their job is to make America a safer place. Hell, we constantly are reminded that Donald Trump has a 50 percent chance of being the next president. If you are a young adult going to college, you feel the pressure of finding a high salary job when you graduate so you can pay off the huge amount of student loans. Put all these things together, and you realize that for our generation, this world is becoming a scarier place to live in.
