Max Davine's Blog - Posts Tagged "lifestyle"
Pokemon Methanphetamine
What would you say if you heard that an app simulation had been created in which millennials grab their phones, use them to hunt down invisible, fictional animals, beat them into submission and capture them, and then meet up to have the creatures fight each other, using magical powers and the elements to rend their opponent within an inch of their lives? Would you predict a record-breaking success, surpassing all competing social media platforms from Facebook to Instagram? Would you imagine there'd be psychologists out there saying this CG savagery is good for people, and praising it for enhancing social interactions and getting young folks outside? Would you believe that there are actually people out there quitting their jobs to make a living off trading or training these fictional animals?
Nor would I, but that's why you and I are not billionaire app developers, and I, for one, never sought the high-energy social interaction and instant profitability of a good old-fashioned dog fight, back in the days when you had to get real, flesh and blood animals to do the ripping and tearing.
Pokemon Go has over a billion users, at last glance, and is being regarded fondly by many a concerned doctor of the mind for getting millennials out of the house and into the parks...and the streets, and the busy roads, and other people's backyards, and the biker's clubhouses...but I digress. It's bringing people together. All the better that technology saves many a helpless young rooster from being eviscerated by another, bigger rooster for the sake of a punt.
When video games were first created, it didn't take long for them to take the form of simulated killing, and that they were often done in a young person's bedroom, in absolute isolation, drew much criticism from the outside world. The criticism was about their "message", that is, looking down the sights of a firearm and shooting people-like avatars dead. It was considered desensitizing. A word seldom uttered these days.
Pokemon Go, however, has caused a distinct one-eighty in the trend, and while it has been criticized for the possibility of its abuse at the risk of human lives, it's violent undertones have been duly ignored. There was once a time when we sought beyond the physical and immediate psychological effect of a video game to examine their merits to society, into the long-term moral and empathetic implications of their use, regarding what their stories conveyed.
So, has technology taken a turn for the better? Or have our attitudes become so complacent with regard to technology-driven hobbies that we now see only the immediate effect it has on the users, rather than that elusive, oft-misinterpreted "message"? Or are we just happy this generation is getting some fresh air? Is that perspective...desensitized?
After all, anything that's not crystal methamphetamine must be good, right?
Nor would I, but that's why you and I are not billionaire app developers, and I, for one, never sought the high-energy social interaction and instant profitability of a good old-fashioned dog fight, back in the days when you had to get real, flesh and blood animals to do the ripping and tearing.
Pokemon Go has over a billion users, at last glance, and is being regarded fondly by many a concerned doctor of the mind for getting millennials out of the house and into the parks...and the streets, and the busy roads, and other people's backyards, and the biker's clubhouses...but I digress. It's bringing people together. All the better that technology saves many a helpless young rooster from being eviscerated by another, bigger rooster for the sake of a punt.
When video games were first created, it didn't take long for them to take the form of simulated killing, and that they were often done in a young person's bedroom, in absolute isolation, drew much criticism from the outside world. The criticism was about their "message", that is, looking down the sights of a firearm and shooting people-like avatars dead. It was considered desensitizing. A word seldom uttered these days.
Pokemon Go, however, has caused a distinct one-eighty in the trend, and while it has been criticized for the possibility of its abuse at the risk of human lives, it's violent undertones have been duly ignored. There was once a time when we sought beyond the physical and immediate psychological effect of a video game to examine their merits to society, into the long-term moral and empathetic implications of their use, regarding what their stories conveyed.
So, has technology taken a turn for the better? Or have our attitudes become so complacent with regard to technology-driven hobbies that we now see only the immediate effect it has on the users, rather than that elusive, oft-misinterpreted "message"? Or are we just happy this generation is getting some fresh air? Is that perspective...desensitized?
After all, anything that's not crystal methamphetamine must be good, right?
