And on the other not-so-pessimistic side, it's a cellphone app that's encourages people to actually get up and go outside.
The challenge in making people aware of potential problems, says Scotland Symons, a security researcher with more than two decades in the field, is that people love playing the game.
“I’ve never seen so many people playing a game and being so happy,” she says. “[Pokemon Go] is more of a social-engineering question: ‘Can I get people to do this thing?’ And when the thing is playing Pokemon, the answer is yes.”
As smartphone apps and services develop, our resistance to passively sharing data such as our location drops, says Larry Rosen, a psychologist and researcher at California State University, Dominguez Hills, who studies consumer reactions to modern technology.
Pokemon Go “has really tapped into the quality and impact of the smartphone as a connection and entertainment device. We’re not fighting; we’re exploring, we’re getting entertained,” Rosen says. “Other than crossing the freeway and getting hit by cars, this could be an entertaining, social, and health-saving activity. Most activity on your phone requires you to be sedentary, not active.”
And that's a quote coming from an anti-pokemon go editorial.
What's the point if you keep looking at a small screen? It's as worse as those who go out "for a coffee" only to snatch the free wifi while interacting with the person in front of them through chat.
I don't play Go, but I do enjoy going to coffee shops to get work done now and then. So I have to take exception to your idea.
I find that my chances of meeting a stranger and striking up a conversation increase roughly one billion percent by merely going into a public space. I assume Go players are even more equipped to recognize each other, and they already have something in common.
Ice broken. Hell, I was doing flashcards (on my phone!) at a Sheetz gas station a couple days ago and got into a 45 minute conversation with a black guy about the political state of the US.
People will bitch about anything. Especially westerners (I assume this artist is western), who believe that bitching is indicative of moral superiority.
There's no doubt this is a generational thing. When I had my personal page at Geocities, played games online, chatted on ICQ nor had virtual friends on IRC, it was looked upon as a nerd IT guy thing with no social life. Fast forward 8 years later, I grow tired of those things and it turns out then it's the most cool thing everyone does.
I don't mind how people interact at all, but sometimes I would like to talk to someone who isn't obsessively looking at his/her screen every 5 minutes. It's like that person isn't with me or doesn't wish to be there. I'm in favor of technology, but I'm also in favor of not to be a slave of it. I learned about that a decade ago.