Summer 2016 just got even more eventful with the new Pokémon GO App. And if you have a child, teen, or even young adult, you know what I’m talking about. My oldest and my youngest have been happily spending hours walking the city in search of Pokémon. The new app lets each user become a trainer and through his phone’s navigation system and camera, shows him exactly where the creatures are hiding, so he can go catch them all. It also locates the PokéStops in your vicinity, which are center locations where users can gain helpful accessories, and Pokémon Gyms, where users can battle other Pokémon.
The game shows you real-life photos of key places, such as landmarks and businesses in your neighborhood, and tells you to go to them to collect more.
Yesterday, my son and daughter went to the local playground after seeing that the sprinkler area was a gym. When they got there, they saw people of all ages gathered with their Pokémon music blaring from their phones, trying desperately to acquire accessories while also grabbing that longed-for Eevee (a rare Pokémon species).
The day before, as my son and I were on the train crossing the Manhattan Bridge, the app located a live Pokémon in the train car that he could potentially catch.
The first time I tuned into the Pokémon craze was in the late ’90s when my nephew, Mike, would collect the cards. He introduced my daughter Amanda to it, although at five years his senior, she didn’t quite have the training abilities that he possessed. Mike was the most dedicated 10-year-old trainer you could ever find.
He’d keep every card in a plastic wrap, and buy scrapbooks in which he carefully organized each card according to its Pokémon group (water, air, or land). The fun back then was that you never knew which cards would be in a pack, so every time you purchased a pack for just a couple of bucks, it was like buying a lottery ticket. I remember those walks home from the store with him screaming, “I got a Charizard!”
It was nothing but fun. Later on, Mike got into the Gameboy games and had to have the Pokémon Yellow and then Pokémon Gold and Silver to catch the creatures on his Gameboy. Pokémon had become the dominant subject of many days back then, and birthday and Christmas gifts were easy — they were always a game, console, pack of cards, T-shirt, or accessory of some sort.
I even remember rewriting the popular 1999 Macy Gray song, “I Try” to be a Pokémon song, “I try to say goodbye to Machoke, try to walk away from my Squirtle, though I try to hide it, it’s clear, my world crumbles when Pokémon’s not here.” Hey, it made the kids laugh.
I thought the allure had finally died down until my kids downloaded the app a couple of days ago, and it seems like everyone — adults included — are hunting Pokémon. Now they are hunting in groups and taking pics of the creatures, then Instagramming the photos, which show the Pokémon on the bus or in the car, or in my case, on my head in a Lower East Side Starbucks.
As a mom (and a worrier), I can see the potential pitfalls, such as not watching where you are going when pursuing a Pokémon, and veering into the street, or walking into a high-crime neighborhood because a PokéStops exists there, but with a little common sense and awareness, the game can be loads of fun.
It will surely bring customers to many businesses, as users seem to gather wherever the Pokémon are. I’m seeing big marketing bucks for the creators here. Already, stores are putting up signs letting customers know that they are a stop. On another positive note, it also gets kids walking all over. If the kids are young enough, it gets parents walking with them, so the fitness component is a double win.
I would have never thought that nearly 20 years later, I’d still be thinking about Pokémon, but the saying “whatever is old becomes new again” sticks around for a reason. So if you see a group of kids or adults gathered around making gestures and posing for photos with things that aren’t really there, rest assured … and then watch out, because there just might be a Pikachu behind you!
Danielle Sullivan, a mom of three, is a writer and editor living in New York City. Sullivan also writes about pets and parenting for Disney’s Babbl
