The Psychological Phenomenon "Pokemon GO", Or How To Enslave The World In 10 Days

2024 Author: Harry Day | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 15:43

Over the past few days, the world has been engulfed in Pokemon madness. On July 6, Niantic officially launched the Pokemon GO app. Its essence is very simple: the game is an adventure quest with elements of augmented reality. The application is a real map of the area, on which "sights" and "live" Pokémon are indicated. Each player is a "Pokemon trainer" whose goal is to collect as many of these wonderful animals as possible, fight with other trainers and "pump" their pets.

Now, let's try to consider this phenomenon, spreading like a virus, from the point of view of psychology.

Why is this app interesting to people?

First, people are interested in everything new. An easy, unsightly game with a simple interface, which does not force you to possess any special mental, physical or mental data. You just need to walk around the city and collect animals, guided by a real map of the area on your phone.

Secondly, people like everything that is popular. Even if you are an opponent of the mainstream and do not follow the trends, you should find out what “Pokemon GO” is “from the inside” before making judgments about the application.

Thirdly, for some people (most likely they make up the majority of the target audience), this game evokes pleasant nostalgic feelings associated with childhood, when the cartoon about Pokemon was at the peak of popularity. Each user has the opportunity to get in touch with their past, perhaps even fall into childhood for a short time.

The fourth reason is additional motivation for “doing sports”. Playing Pokemon GO, you can go around half the city without noticing it. And this is useful not only for the physical, but also for the mental state. In addition, there is a great opportunity to visit a large number of architectural monuments, museums and historical sites, since there are PokeStop game stations. (Although, in my area, such attractions turned out to be a market, a gym, and a school.)

For the latter reason, we can turn to Grandfather Freud. He spoke of such a concept as the anal stage of psychosexual development. Everything sounds much worse than it really is. It is about the life stage that every person goes through between the ages of 18 months and 3 years. At this time, the child learns to go to the toilet on his own (hence the name), and learns to get satisfaction from the fact that he performs these actions on his own.

Freud was convinced that the way parents train a child to the toilet has an impact on his later personal development. At this stage, a person develops self-control and self-regulation, accuracy, neatness, punctuality, stubbornness, secrecy, aggressiveness, hoarding, frugality and a tendency to collect. In general, we all have a desire to collect - people, things, impressions, Pokemon, because "we all come from childhood" - as Antoine de Saint-Exupery said.

Why is Pokemon GO spreading so fast?

In social psychology, there is such a thing as "infection". This is one of the basic mechanisms of mass psychology. Its essence lies in the fact that in the crowd of ideas-thoughts-concepts-fashion and so on. tend to spread like an avalanche. Here the principle is that the more apologists for some idea (thought, concept, fashion) there are now, the more there will be tomorrow, and they grow almost exponentially.

For example, Masha and Pasha liked the new game Pokemon GO. We looked, played, told a dozen of our friends - well, okay, so no one else could know about the application, and those who knew would quickly forget. But when this game has already been liked by 100 people, and they told 1000 of their friends about it, then the chances of Pokemon GO for global popularity have increased significantly (after all, those who liked the game out of this 1000 will tell about its existence to 1000 of their friends, etc.).

There is another important and interesting nuance in the mechanism of infection of the masses - it occurs completely imperceptibly. The fact is that when a person observes the emotional response of another, he involuntarily has the same emotional response. The more people are fanatical about a new toy, the greater the chance that you will become a fan too. And then something even more amazing happens - seeing support in your reaction, the original person becomes stronger in his original emotion, reinforcing it. That is, Masha liked Pokemon GO, she tells Pasha about it, and somewhere on a subconscious level, Pasha already has a positive attitude towards the game. When Pasha, having tested the game, assesses it positively, and tells Masha about it, her emotions intensify, and now she not only likes, but really likes the game.

It is also necessary to understand the structure of the infection. In fact, it has two parts - suggestion and imitation. The latter is a physiological mechanism characteristic of all herd, and especially higher animals. It is because of this, for the most part, people strive for community. (You can be a marginal in our time, but no one wants to be lonely.) And in our age of high technologies, the Internet and social networks, news and ideas scatter at the speed of light, contributing to the spread of the mechanism of infection of the masses.

This is how the game "Pokemon GO", for some ten days, was able to conquer the world.

Pros and cons of the game

An indisputable plus of "Pokemon GO" is spending time in the fresh air. You can go outside, breathe, get vitamin D, while away the time on the way to the right place, look at historical monuments, while collecting Pokémon - well, in general! Plus, you're trending, and there is a great topic to discuss with friends the next time you meet.

According to some studies, Pokemon GO is marketed as a game that improves the mental and physical health of players suffering from depression and social anxiety. There is evidence that users, going out into the street, become more socially active, motivated to contact the environment. A doubtful fact, of course, because when a person is focused only on his phone, and what is happening in him, he does not become more open and sociable.

There are also several disadvantages in the game. The first - collecting Pokémon in disadvantaged areas - is a rather risky undertaking. This can attract more attention to the active user from disadvantaged elements, for which the sight of an expensive gadget is a strong temptation. As a result, you can be left without a phone and suffer not only mentally, but also physically.

Second - looking at the phone, do not forget to look under your feet and around. After all, being involved in the game, you may not notice a person / pillar / tree approaching you, fall into a hole, or get hit by a car.

In addition, it is worth learning how to combine business with pleasure. If hunting for a Pokemon brought you to a museum - look around, there may be much more interesting than the game itself.

How to deal with Pokemon mania?

This is, rather, a rhetorical question - after all, "Pokemon GO" is already almost everywhere. Whether or not to connect to the app, consider players to be obsessed or addicted, be trendy or marginal - it's up to you. Most importantly, do not forget to enjoy your choice!