Paul Sassone

It’s just a game, I know. But …
Unless you’ve been in a coma or out of the country you’ve read about or seen on TV news reports of the latest electronic craze, Pokemon Go.
Released on July 6, Pokemon Go is an app that allows players to capture Pokemon in real-world locations. The app makes little monsters appear on your smart-phone screen as you walk through your neighborhood as if the creatures are right in front of you.
Of course, people are abusing the game.
Hospitals report injuries of Pokemon Go players who hurt themselves walking into walls or falling down while walking — or even driving.
This has gotten so bad that A.T. Still University, a medical school in Arizona, sent an email to students that warned, “Remember to look up from your phone to avoid tripping or running into something.”
Crooks also seem to be enjoying Pokemon Go. Police in O’Fallon, Mo., say armed robbers used the app to lure players to a location and then robbed them.
And in Wyoming, a teenager stumbled over a dead body while she had her eyes glued to her smart phone playing Pokemon Go.
And I bet if you check the news today there will be some Pokemon Go-related mischance.
It’s just a game, I know. And what’s wrong with people (kids and adults) enjoying themselves?
But I have to ask: Is this all there is?
Is Pokemon Go the end product of the computer revolution? This app that transforms the real world into a cartoon?
By means of the computer, science and technology have made the world available to anyone who can get online.
The great works of literature, art, music are there for the taking, at a mere touch. All the thousands of years of humankind’s study and discovery are at our fingertips.
And how do we use this awesome power? Pokemon Go.
And we must not forget Internet bullying, selfies, contentless tweets and broadcasting to the world what we had for lunch.
Pokemon Go may be harmless, but while we do Pokemon Go we are not doing something else, something that might enlighten, uplift and educate our mind and spirit.
And here’s a melancholy thought: There is no end to computer development. Pokemon Go is not the end, merely one point in a technology stream.
Bigger and flashier computer time-wasters are just around the corner, I’m sure.

–Pokemon Go Just the beginning–