A WORLD-WIDE PHENOMENON “Pokemon Go” is a monster game  played over a smartphone.It is addicting both  the young and not so young -since the Apps of Pokemon Go was made available  a few weeks ago.

It is a simple enough game which produces a Pokemon creature on one’s phone to be located  in a certain location. The game’s aim  is to capture as many Pokemon creatures and do battle with other’s Pokemon creatures to death.

Foot traffic areas  in malls and  biking and walking lanes in parks  filled  now with zombie-like men are commonplace. Focusing on phones, people have suffered sprains and bruises -walking or driving while playing the game.But the craze goes wilder by the day.

Judges had warned they will expel anyone in their courts playing the game. Some of our  honorable legislators who used to text their enamoratas, do deals on the phone. check home or dozing off in the  session halls -are now wide awake- addicted to this Pokemon Monster.

Some people justify the game as taking them off from bed -in search of the creatures and a social networking tool as they meet the King and Queen of the other  captured creatures.

William Goset reports that in St. Louis County-people were alerted to search a rare monster in a certain place- only to be trapped there by armed robbers.

A stampede of hundreds of people erupted near the Central Park in New York  City and caused a monstrous traffic jam as people left their cars on the streets -just to capture a virtually exciting  monster. In Illinois, the ruckus was caused by the presence of a rare creature called SNORLAX.

The world has gone crazy -no not over their pet dogs- but now  over a creature captured inside their phones. Unfortunately, they  have used this  craze to escape from  them confronting serious world issues like racism, the environment, ISIS,violence and criminality. Isn’t that a bit pathetic?

The game puts an anesthesia, as it were,  on the senses and makes them forget the world’s  grim reality and day to day problems.

Is this then not a good thing? Not if it consumes so much time. James Donlon reports American youngsters now spend 22 hours a week about 4.5 hours a day on such games – which is the time- equivalent spent on a part-time job. What a waste of time.

Video games including Pokemon is an escape from reality as they give instant gratification.  Players  begin to feel larger than life in searching and then capturing a huge creature and  successfully do violent battles and winning  over other creatures.

They feel a  huge but false sense of accomplishment. Because in real life- accomplishment is tied to “reality, hard work, sacrifice and talent”. Very little of those are required to become a Pokemon Exterminator.

Worse, Pokemon Go like video games as “World of Warcraft”, ” Bioshock Infinite”,”The Law of Us”, “Grand Theft Auto”and “Fallout” contain some form of grave violence and criminality that being addicted to them might predispose one’s subconscious to actualizing their mental games.

It is in the sense of actualizing violence , (suicide,homicide ,murder,theft) forgetting the world’s realities and wasting a  ton of precious  time- that playing Pokemon Go and its related games -should be rationalized.  They ought to be boxed tightly  and  then reviewed with the the prism of  one’s nobler sense of priorities, decency and social concern.

Manage Pokemon Go, then,  or it will manage you.

For comments: email to dejarescobingo@yahoo.com or bohol-rd@mozcom.com