During the time of the original "Pokémon" era, I sat by while my sister watched the show, and didn’t object to playing the game when over at a friend’s house, but I was never a “'Pokémon' kid.” I didn’t trade playing cards during lunch or sing the theme song on the playground. This is why the release of "Pokémon Go" sounded cool, but didn’t immediately convince me of its inevitable presence in my everyday life. It wasn’t until I was hanging out with friends who couldn’t tear their eyes away from their phones that I realized the magnitude of this app’s power.
My friends would sit by Pokéstops because someone would place a lure and I would get antsy waiting for them to move on. Even on the first day of being exposed to this, we would spot other people of every age range standing on their phones in our general vicinity, and we knew.Conversation would strike up about nearby rare Pokémon, or how sick they were of finding Rattats and Pidgeys. We roamed the neighborhood with people who had heard there was a nearby Tauros and proceeded to scope out the entire boulevard together. It became a popular topic of discussion that "Pokémon" gave strangers something to talk about and without it, this whole situation would look like an Afterschool Special. It was interesting to watch from a perspective separate from the players I was surrounded by.
By the next day, I had downloaded the app and the group was headed to Bryant Park. People were gathered for Manhattenhenge, trying to catch Pokémon, or were there for both (which was exactly what we were doing). As everyone in the scattered assemblage started to realize what most of us were in the general vicinity for, we started comparing levels and our Pokédex. One girl responded to my friend’s level with “That’s sweet” and I could smell the charred scent of a minor burn. I was guided in my team selection by the surrounding players and decided on Team Mystic. The conversation moved to the competition between Team Mystic and Team Valor and how Team Instinct is basically the Hufflepuff of the Pokéverse. The amount of people engaging in conversation all around us was astounding to each of us and gave me this great fantastical and tingly feeling. As an individual who certainly doesn’t feel like she can strike up a conversation with anyone, this felt like a breakthrough, like a really awesome opportunity for this generation.
Adults like to talk about how this generation is so disconnected from the world and each other. They complain that technology is cutting us off from conversation and connection to other individuals. I think we talk when we want to. I think technology is what connects us to other people of our generation and gives us something we can all relate to. "Pokémon Go" is the only app I have seen that has gotten the population to actually leave the house, walk, and open up to others on this scale. "Pokémon" was around before we realized the divide between individuals, before we were aware of the inequality in race, gender, and sexual-orientation. The return of "Pokémon" is reminding us of the feeling of simplicity we had when we were kids and how we saw the world before.
