Why I, an Adult, Am Not Ashamed To Play Pokémon GO

Gather round, haters! I’d like to tell you about a little something I call “why Pokémon GO is an OK thing for grown adults to enjoy.”

Obviously, I’m biased. I’m a grown adult: I can legally vote, drive, and sign contracts; I am fortunate enough to be gainfully employed in a couple careers that benefit society; and if I were pregnant, society would congratulate me instead of lamenting my “squandered potential.”

I am also into Pokémon GO. I play it every day. I’m definitely not the very best like no one ever was — I don’t go on outings specifically to catch or hatch Pokémon, and my desire to catch ’em all ends at my desire not to take the TTC when I don’t have to.

That said, I feel the need to defend myself for enjoying a thing that makes my day better. Many segments of society seem to have decided that Pokémon GO is nothing but a magnet for selfish, phone-absorbed not-actually-grown-ups annexing a pastime meant for children, polluting public spaces with inappropriate behaviour while demanding accolades for getting out of the house.

It’s not.

To see why, let’s look at the three most common themes of anti-Pokémon GO posts.

1. Adults who play Pokémon GO should do some other, better thing instead.

As it happens, I am very satisfied with my romantic, social, and professional lives. I do (read books/play console video games/hang out with friends/play sports/go to the gym/better activity that Pokémon GO allegedly replaces).

In fact, I think when people say, “Ugh, Pokémon GO. Why don’t people just ____ instead?” what they mean is, “I can’t imagine myself playing Pokémon GO unless, for some reason, ____ were missing from my life.”

Or “I know I should be doing ____, and I spend a lot of my time feeling guilty about that. If I don’t feel the same way about you playing Pokémon GO as I’d feel about me playing Pokémon GO, I’m setting myself up for cognitive dissonance.”

Or even, “It doesn’t feel fair that everyone is praising Pokémon GO for getting people to do a little _____ when I did a lot of ____ without Pokémon GO, and people just take it for granted.”

And, hey, those are all understandable and mostly reasonable things to feel. It’s just, your complicated feelings about the place ____ should have in your life isn’t a good reason to squelch the joy in other people’s.

Of course, it’s not just Pokémon GO that elicits comments like this. It’s any immersive hobby that the speaker doesn’t share. Yes, “nerds,” you often get it for video games and fandoms, but some of you do it to “jocks” with your “sportsball” comments, and way too many people do it to female-identified people who are into stereotypically girly things like boy bands and fashion and weddings. Or to overweight people who are into literally anything but losing weight.

Be where the negativity stops. Unless someone is hurting you or others, let them have their happiness. It’s too precious a thing to kill without a good reason.

2. But Pokémon GO does hurt others. Look at these terrible ways people playing it behave.

Yep, people paying Pokémon GO might stop dead in the middle of the sidewalk, cause traffic accidents through distracted driving, or disrupt solemn spaces like memorials and graveyards. Obviously, none of those things is cool.

Er, except whenever I’m out and about, I see people doing them (well, not causing traffic accidents, not right in front of me, thank goodness) while they’re not playing Pokémon GO. Most of the people who cut me off on the sidewalk seem to be messaging someone. People whip their phones out to check notifications in all sorts of inappropriate places. And I hope I don’t need to tell anyone about the dangers but also popularity of texting while driving.

The problem is not limited to Pokémon GO specifically, at least not where I live. It’s ubiquitous among smartphone users. But let’s not technology-blame: portable CD players, novels, and written language are all things that have been blamed in the past for everything we load onto smartphones now, like the collapse of common courtesy and the erosion of healthy social interaction.

Taking away the technology doesn’t solve the problem, which is people. Some people are dicks. Some are inconsiderate. Almost everyone feels like multitasking while driving or crossing the street is a risk for everyone else, but not me, because I can pay attention to the important things. The problem is a big one, and it’s difficult. It deserves more thought than “restrict this technology!”.

It’s true that Pokémon GO created new problems because the developers used player-supplied information from another, less popular game (Ingress) to designate in-game locations desirable for players to visit. This drew crowds to places where there might not have been crowds before and transformed what should have been private property into de facto public spaces. That is an issue specific to this app.

However, if you catch a Pokémon GO player breaking into someone’s yard or cracking open their phone at a Holocaust memorial, that’s a good reason to reproach them, not all the other people playing the game and not behaving poorly — just as we rightly condemn college athletes who commit sexual assault and the culture of toxic masculinity that has grown around their sport rather than, say, football itself.

3. But football isn’t trivial and childish, and Pokémon GO is.

It sure is.

There are tons of things in the world that are way more important than Pokémon GO. Family. Friends. Equity. Art. Sex. Health. Social justice. Making sure everyone has the necessities of life.

Meanwhile, nobody’s wellbeing depends on whether I capture a rare Dratini before it can run away. Nobody makes money walking their Pikachu. Thousands of fans don’t crowd around a TV to watch people take down a gym.

Plus, as many have pointed out, the game’s not really that good as a game. Once the initial excitement wears off, the actions are repetitive with no clear end goal. A lot depends on random chance, and the farther you live from a major city, the less luck you’re likely to have.

So?

Sometimes objectively trivial things make a big difference to the person they concern. For example, for shy people, Pokémon GO lowers the activation energy needed to approach a stranger — maybe not a big deal if you’re naturally gregarious, but a huge difference if you’re not.

That’s why, though there may be negative press about the app causing public nuisances, there are also touching stories about it helping people connect when they otherwise might not have done.

People with anxiety or depression have written about how it’s easier to persuade themselves out of the house to quest for pretend monsters that don’t matter than for heavy responsibilities or social tasks. Parents describe spending quality outdoor time with their families and how the app has helped special-needs children achieve more fulfilling social connections.

I can’t speak for every player, but Pokémon GO helps me. The guaranteed progress in return for effort — if I walk somewhere, I’m that much closer to hatching an egg, for example — eases the sting of not always being able to check off the errand I set out to complete. Do I have to trek to a distant part of the city? Hey, at least maybe there’ll be Pokémon I haven’t seen before.

Likewise, sometimes a silly little thing like hatching a Bulbasaur or capturing an Electabuzz can brighten a dismal day. Sure, I might have tossed and turned all night and then watched my students’ eyes go dim as I urged them to participate and still have several hours of grading to do, and, oh, by the way, I need to figure out how to use up all the leftovers before they go bad, but at least my luck isn’t all terrible.

Just because something is objectively trivial doesn’t mean it’s subjectively without impact.

And as for childish? I gotta go with C. S. Lewis here, paraphrased: it’s true, when I grew up, I gave up childish things that were no longer appropriate for me, including caring what other people think about how mature I am.

So it’s just like C. S. Lewis probably also said: in this case, don’t hate the game. Hate the playa who puts that game above safety and practicing social consideration.